JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A video posted on Facebook by Jacksonville Republican Mayoral Candidate Ron Armstrong is raising questions about how \u2013 and whether \u2013 Jacksonville Fire and Rescue resources should be used for events that are not fires or emergencies or sanctioned by the city.<\/p>\n
Armstrong owns the Grounds of Grace coffee shop in Arlington. <\/p>\n
In the video you hear Armstrong say, \u201cWhen you can\u2019t fill a baptismal tub, what do you do? You just call the firefighters, and they fill it up for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n We reached out to Armstrong for an interview, but he declined to speak on camera. <\/p>\n However, he tells Action News Jax that he lets church groups use his coffee shop to host events. <\/p>\n Armstrong said that, despite his video, he is not the one who called JFRD, nor is he a member of the church group that hosted the baptism event. <\/p>\n Jacksonville resident Bill Gardner has mixed feelings about JFRD\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be an everyday occurrence for the fire department to do nothing like that but if they can\u2019t find a church and that\u2019s all that\u2019s left right now, God Bless,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n We reached out to JFRD and asked if this was done while the firefighters were on duty, and if there is a policy regarding the use of department equipment for a religious ceremony. <\/p>\n In a statement, they said:<\/p>\n \u201cJFRD personnel are community helpers. Our stations are located within the neighborhoods we serve, and we consider ourselves part of those communities. Our crews routinely respond to public assistance requests. This includes everything from helping a stranded driver with a flat tire to rescuing baby ducklings. These crews remain on duty and fully available to respond to emergencies in their district. There is no JFRD policy prohibiting minor public assistance.<\/p>\n In this case, the crew was approached by an individual as they left their station to get dinner. He asked if they could fill a tub with water, as none was available on site. The crew agreed as a routine act of public assistance. JFRD personnel did not participate in any religious ceremony and were unaware they were being filmed or that the request had any connection to a political campaign. JFRD does not participate in political campaign activity in any capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n We also reached out to the mayor\u2019s office and asked whether these city resources could be used in a religious ceremony. They referred us to JFRD\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n Here is the video:<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A video posted on Facebook by Jacksonville Republican Mayoral Candidate Ron Armstrong is raising questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,643,14324,94684,127665,1292,22140,127664,969,116,118,117,12814,634,656,52196,11103,94683],"class_list":["post-304771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_jack","tag-arlington","tag-armstrong","tag-bill_gardner","tag-facebook","tag-god","tag-grays_coffee_shop","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jfrd","tag-local","tag-madison_foglio","tag-madison_fuglio","tag-republican","tag-ron_armstrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}