Station Closure Is Wrong, Harmful To Community: Bon Air Fire Co

HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP, PA — The Bon Air Fire Company in Haverford Township is criticizing the township's decision to close the station due to a member's brief involvement in a far-right group.

The fire company released a statement Thursday saying the decision was wrong.

"In closing the Fire Company, the Township failed 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," the fire company's statement said.

Haverford officials said the station was closed indefinitely Wednesday after it failed to accept the resignation of a member who attended meetings of the Proud Boys, a "western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world" designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group supports "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, officials said.

The member 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 said he "is not now, nor ever was, a member" of the Proud Boys.

"Some of the bedrock rights we all share as American citizens are the rights to freely assemble and to freely associate with others," the statement reads. "Unfortunately, our beliefs in those constitutional rights are sometimes tested when the groups in question espouse beliefs in which we do not agree."

The fire company said investigations into the member's activity did not show any negative impact on his emergency response service to the community.

"The Township's decision to close the Fire Company is wrong and harmful to the community," the statement reads. "As a result of its decision, there are now 37 fewer well trained active crew members available to fight fires in our community and three fewer fire trucks available to be dispatched to alarms."

The statement closes by urging the township to reconsider the closing.

Read the full statement here.