Maryland firefighter under review after viral video shows water soaking field

Maryland firefighter under review after viral video shows water soaking field

In its 25 years, the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts baseball team has received limited media attention. Its championship season in 2006 was covered. A no-hitter garnered stories, as did players skilled enough to make the major leagues.

Then came July 17.

From just beyond the outfield fence at the team’s field in suburban Maryland, a Montgomery County firefighter reportedly climbed aboard a county fire truck and fired a high-pressure hose over the fence and into center field for about eight minutes.

A video of the deluge went viral. The ensuing swamp forced a cancellation of the game.

“It was like Niagara Falls coming down,” team founder Dick O’Connor, 75, said in an interview Friday, the same day he fielded a phone call from a reporter in London. By then, the event had been covered, by O’Connor’s count, in more than 40 outlets across the United States.

Montgomery officials are still sorting out exactly what precipitated the dousing. In the past, balls from the field have soared over a tall protective net fence and into a fire station parking lot. On that day, the firefighter’s personal pickup truck apparently was hit, though it’s unclear how much damage the vehicle suffered.

The incident is now one of three involving employee behavior that is being investigated by Montgomery County’s Fire and Rescue Service.

On July 19, during massive flooding in the county, a firefighter drove a fire truck into a submerged road where it got stuck — a move that seemed to run counter to the department’s often-promoted safety slogan of “Turn around, don’t drown.” The truck was damaged.

On July 21, the fire department said it was investigating “an inappropriate comment made by an MCFRS employee on a social media post made by the Montgomery County Police Department.” The comment was concerning, according to the department, and does not reflect its “values or commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.” Officials did not disclose what words were used.

Montgomery’s top elected official, County Executive Marc Elrich, fielded questions about the incidents during his weekly media briefing Wednesday. WTOP reporter Kate Ryan asked if there were broader issues within the fire department.

Elrich said the incidents were different and has recently noted high performance throughout a department of about 2,500 career and active volunteer firefighters. He said agencies “are made of up human beings, and among those human beings sometimes are people who don’t always do the right thing,” adding, “that’s just the nature of every workplace in this country, probably.”

Elrich said he and his staff are “very concerned” about the social media post and the ballfield spraying. Regarding the former, “I know what the language was, and it was absolutely inappropriate on that posting,” Elrich said.

He added that Fire Chief Corey Smedley “takes this stuff very seriously, and there will be consequences.”

Elrich described the incident of the firefighter who drove the truck into a flooded roadway differently. He said the driver might not have been adequately trained or adequately assessed the situation: “It’s quite possible that he didn’t understand either how deep it was or the limitations of the truck.”

One of Elrich’s top aides, Earl Stoddard, said officials don’t expect to have to replace the fire truck, but repairs will probably cost “thousands of dollars.”

Jeffrey Buddle, president of the county’s firefighters union — the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1664 — said officials appear to be jumping to conclusions.

“The fire chief and county executive’s comments on these incidents, while they remain under investigation, are discouraging. The comments seem to presume that some or all of these employees engaged in misconduct,” Buddle said in an email. “Every MCFRS employee, whether they are a member of the IAFF Local 1664 bargaining unit or not, is entitled to a fair and unbiased investigation before any conclusions about their conduct are reached.”

Net fencing at the field is designed to stop home runs from soaring onto the fire station or cars in a parking lot. Some big home runs still clear it.

The field-spraying incident occurred as the Thunderbolts were practicing at Blair Baseball Stadium in Silver Spring before their 7 p.m. game on July 17 against the Metro SoCo Braves.

Both teams compete in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League, a Washington-area summer league that requires the use of wood bats — not metal ones — and comprises college players who aspire to become professional baseball players, O’Connor said.

Several Thunderbolts players launched home runs over the left-field fence during their pregame practice, O’Connor said, though it was unclear to him just how far they went.

Just beyond that fence is a Montgomery County fire station that includes a parking lot. This had prompted the stadium’s owner to erect a high net fence above the baseball fence, said O’Connor. Signs also were erected in the parking lot warning about flying baseballs, O’Connor added, and the firefighters were given a schedule of ballgames.

“They had our schedule on the wall,” he said.

At about 5:35 p.m., O’Connor, coaches and players suddenly saw a tower of water rising behind the fence.

Max Eckert, an assistant coach for the Thunderbolts, was out on the field at the time. He assumed the firefighters were spraying into a wooded area also beyond the fence. Then he realized the spray was trained onto the field, prompting him to head to the outfield fence and investigate. He saw a firefighter atop the fire truck and — while water rained down on Eckert — loudly asked him what he was doing.

“You just hit my truck, so I am watering your field,” the firefighter responded, according to Eckert.

The fire station sits behind left field, just beyond the tall net fence.

A short time later, O’Connor went to the firehouse to investigate, arriving just after the spraying stopped. But he saw the firefighter still standing on the truck, according to O’Connor, and asked him why he had sprayed the field.

“I wanted to get your attention,” the firefighter responded, according to O’Connor.

The resulting ankle-high water left him no choice but to cancel the game. Preventing injuries is of paramount importance given the players’ aspirations. “A guy could have broken an ankle out there, twisted a knee,” O’Connor said.

The Montgomery County Park Police were called. O’Connor told an officer what had happened.

A spokesman for the Montgomery County Park Police could not be reached for comment. In a statement the day after the deluge, the county’s fire department expressed its “sincere apologies to the players, teams, Cal Ripken League, and all fans and families impacted by this disruption. We understand how important this venue is to the community.”

The damage also caused O’Connor to move a July 20 game to a different field. That meant no revenue for his club from ticket sales, concession sales, souvenirs and raffle tickets. The team operates on a $110,000 budget and, most years, ekes out a small profit, according to O’Connor.

He said that after the incident, he and a manager, using a laser device, calculated that the ball would have had to travel 428 feet to reach the cars in that lot. He said several players on the team wield that kind of power. “It’s a pretty good poke,” he said.

A fire department spokesman, Assistant Chief Daniel Ogren, said that in the past, flying baseballs have damaged the fire station and firefighters’ parked cars and that those incidents have been reported.

O’Connor said the Thunderbolts are not the only team that uses the field. So do other teams and leagues, including one for players 60 and older. “They have guys on that team who can hit the fire station,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor said that had the firefighter approached his team in a civil fashion, perhaps a reimbursement for any damage could have been worked out.

“Instead, he just aimed the water cannon at our field,” O’Connor said.