A Part-Time Firefighter and Part-Time Instagram Model Fired For Posting Pictures In Her "Provocative" Standard-Issue Firefighting Pants
NY POST — A Montana firefighter claims she was fired for posting provocative workout photos to her Instagram account, according to new reports.
Someone even complained Pritchard’s standard-issue women’s pants were too provocative, so the department issued her men’s uniform pants, she claimed.
“So I was like wow, fine, I’ll wear men’s pants!” she told VICE. “Are you serious? Am I supposed to leave my butt at home?”
This story serves as a good reminder of the existence of a bottom-5 worst person in the universe: "the concerned citizen."
The trouble began for Pritchard back in July 2018 when an Evergreen Fire District board member claimed a “concerned citizen” contacted him about Pritchard’s social media activity.
Since then, she was reprimanded about 20 times over her social media posts — her superiors scolding her over how she looked in her uniform, and her workout attire both at the fire station and her personal gym, she told the outlet.
“It was just ongoing — they would call me in for everything,” she said. “It was just always like walking on eggshells there.”
Imagine seeing a public servant wearing yoga pants on Instagram and calling the department to complain. Imagine waking up every day and being that person. And we're not talking about a schoolteacher for impressionable young girls here — Presley Pritchard is a "part-time firefighter paramedic."
If anything that's a huge bonus for the job. I know if some smoke IG model was the one who showed up to resuscitate me I'd work a hell of a lot harder to make myself alive again.
But the world is full of prudes who think boobs and butts are the devil's work, and they've got no shortage of time on their hands to write letters to editors and phone their local officials to complain.
Presley refused to back down to the draconian policies of Big Montana Government, so she got a pink slip for her posts…which didn't actually violate any rules, because there were no rules! At least not any for the MEN. I mean aren't "Hot Firefighter" calendars like the number one best selling calendar genre in the calendar market? Never seen the MEN get concerned-citizen complaints!
Many of the firefighters at Kalispell, Montana's Evergreen Fire Rescue have personal Instagram accounts where they share photos related to their work. The men are sometimes shirtless, posing proudly in their turndowns (the heavy gear traditionally associated with firefighting) and in front of firetrucks, trumpeting their pride at their profession in between posts relating to their hobbies, friends, and families. Presley Pritchard, a 27-year-old firefighter paramedic, was no different, including photos of herself in uniform mixed in among posts about fitness and workouts she created as a personal trainer.
But eventually, the leadership started to come to her with odd criticisms of her social media—her posts were too racy, she was misusing EFR property by including it in her content. Pritchard had worked at the department for almost two years by the time the complaints began, and tried hard to comply with the conflicting criticisms that her men counterparts never seemed to receive. Then, the day she returned from a leave, her boss told her she was fired for violating a social media policy she said doesn’t exist.
“I'm a good medic, I'm a good firefighter! I've never, ever once been talked to about my actual job,” the 27-year-old told VICE. [Vice]
I will never give up the fight for the rights of IG fitspo influencers, especially when those IG fitspo influencers spend half their time rushing into burning buildings and saving lives.
#JusticeFor@Presleykp.fit
