Bon Air Fire Company To Reopen

HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP, PA — After a tumultuous week for Haverford Township, the Bon Air Fire Company will open again to provide emergency services in and around the township. Township officials said Monday night the station would reopen after the company accepted the resignation of a member who dabbled briefly in a hate group.

During a meeting Monday night, the township's board of supervisors unanimously approved a decision to reinstate the fire company, which is shuttered last week due to the company's failure to accept the resignation of a member who attended Proud Boys meetings and participated in some of its initiation rituals.

The supervisors said in a statement that after the fire company said it should have accepted the resignation, they decided to reopen the station. Supervisors also cited the fire company's decision to undergo bias training as a reason to reopen it.

"These positive action by the Bon Air Fire Company reflect a board willing to take responsibility for their action and the poor judgement previously show," the supervisors' statement reads.

The Proud Boys are an Anti Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group. They describe themselves as "western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world."

They support "closed borders," "anti-political correctness," and "venerating the housewife." Women and transgender men are not allowed in the group, which is considered a far-right neofascist organization that has ties to the Charlottesville protests that left one person dead.

The member in question admitted to attending several social gatherings of the group and passing two of the four steps in the group's initiation process, which includes hazing, township officials said. However, he told officials he tried to distance himself from the group after learning of its beliefs.

The fire company refused the member's resignation initially, saying he "is not now, nor ever was, a member" of the Proud Boys and called the station's closure wrong and harmful to the community.

It criticized the township for failing to "identify a single instance in which that volunteer's services to the Haverford community were negatively influenced in any way by his brief association with the outside organization."

However, days later, the company issued another statement saying it should have accepted the resignation.

"We agree with the township that the board of the Bon Air Fire company should have accepted the resignation because it is important that all volunteers who represent the township do so free from bias and without discrimination," the statement said. "In focusing on our relationship with the individual volunteer, the fire company did not recognize the broader impact of our decision on the Haverford community."

Now, the company said it is revising bylaws and policies to prevent any member of a hate group or anyone who participates in hate speech to join the company. Additionally, members will undergo bias training

"It is the hope of the Bon Air Fire Company that the Haverford community can move forward from this incident in the spirit on inclusivity," the statement said. "And that, through our ongoing actions, the Bon Air Fire Company can regain the faith of the entire Haverford Township community."