The Philadelphia firefighter who was sent to the Outer Mongolia of the Philadelphia fire district as punishment for posing in a charity calendar is allowed to rejoin his elite fire unit, authorities announced Tuesday.
Jack Slivinski had been working at Heavy Rescue 1, in one of the most highly trained positions in the Philadelphia Fire Department, until last week when Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers learned that the 31-year-old had posed shirtless for a “Nation’s Bravest” calendar.
The fact that the calendar featured firefighters from around the country, and proceeds went to families of fallen firefighters did not matter to Ayers. He saw Slivinski’s actions as insubordination, as it was “selling sex” and Slivinski did not ask permission to do the shoot.
"We don't sell sex, we sell safety,” Ayers told the Daily News last week. “We get letters from children. They look up to us. We cannot allow [the calendar] to be showing nipples in photographs of Philadelphia firefighters."
While Slivinski didn’t directly ask the top brass, he did ask his Union. His Union representatives did not get approval for Slivinski.
"I should've called the commissioner and let him know, and I didn't," President of Firefighters local 22 Bill Gault told the Daily News last week.
But it was Slivinski who was punished. Sent to a firehouse that increased his commute by an hour and a half, the young firefighter and the photographer of the calendar feared that the move would be permanent.
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But Tuesday morning, Ayers gave Slivinski a verbal warning, as well as permission to rejoin Rescue 1.
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