Firefighters charged with malicious destruction after flooding baseball game

SILVER SPRING, Md. (DC News Now) — Two Montgomery County firefighters are charged with several crimes after a baseball field was flooded over the summer.

Captain Christopher Reilly and Master Firefighter Alan Barnes are both assigned to Station 16 and face the same three counts, including disorderly conduct and malicious destruction of property.

Video of the July 17 incident at Blair Baseball Stadium made its rounds on social media.

“It was stupid more than anything,” said Craig Marine.

He does not believe the two firefighters should be charged for flooding the field.

“Firefighters, they’re very brave people. They’re not know the brains,” Marine said. “So, I wouldn’t charged with the crime. Why ruin their lives over, you know, 30 seconds of stupidity.”

Charging documents say the two sprayed thousands of gallons of water from their fire truck, which forced the game hosted by the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League to be cancelled.

“That’s appropriate,” said Steve Ryles. “I think it’s horrible that they disturbed the game with some fire hoses, and for what reason, I don’t know.”

Reilly reportedly confronted the team’s founder and told him he wanted to get his attention after several baseballs hit the station and cars. Ryles offered his own solution.

“They would put something up to avoid that if they want, if they know that is there’s a baseball field next door,” Ryles said.

Each firefighter could spend up to six years in prison and pay thousands of dollars in fines if convicted of all the charges.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service has removed the two from responding to emergencies pending the results of an internal investigation

“We expect all of our personnel to uphold the highest standards of conduct on and off duty,” the department said in a statement.

“It’s a bit of an overreaction to an inconvenience. Nobody likes their cars getting hit with baseballs,” Marine said. “But he could, he just went and talked to those kids, basically.”

Both firefighters are scheduled to return to court on Oct. 21.

The Thunderbolts declined a request to comment on the charges.