Black Volunteer Firefighter’s Home Engulfed in Flames, 2 days after Receiving Racist, Threatening Note
A North Tonawanda, N.Y., volunteer firefighter who was threatened by a racist letter found in his mailbox Monday lost everything in a fire at his home Wednesday morning, WGRZ reports.
Kenneth Walker and his family are safe, however, two cats died in the fire damage, and the family lost all their possessions.
According to the report, it is not immediately clear how the fire started.
“I’m just shocked,” Kathy Carr, a local business owner, told the station. “The people in North Tonawanda would never do something like this, so I’ll find this interesting to see who the suspect is. I hope they prosecute to the full extent of the law.”
Tensions were already high after Walker, a volunteer firefighter in the city, received a hateful and threatening letter in his mailbox Monday, KHOU reports.
“[N–gers] are not allowed to be firefighters. No one wants you in this city,” the note read.
The letter then went on to threaten Walker, the city’s only black firefighter, to resign from his position or “you will regret it.”