SandyMaloneKansas City, KS – Firefighters frustrated with their local media’s coverage of what the mayor called a shift-trading “black market” started trolling a live television reporter on Wednesday.
As WDAF reporter Matt Stewart attempted to do a live news broadcast in front of the Kansas City Fire Department’s headquarters on Wednesday morning, firefighters took the opportunity to test out their air horns, sirens, and lights. Over, and over, and over again.
Viewers waited for the fire truck to pull out of the station’s driveway and respond to call, but it became obvious that it was the television reporter that the truck was responding to at that location.
The noise made it impossible for the reporter to be heard at times.
“Matt, we can still hear you,” an anchor told him from the television station.
“I think they’re playing with me,” Stewart said.
“This is your third live shot, and we’ve had two of them with sirens and lights behind him. Imagine the odds,” the anchor joked.
“It happens,” Stewart replied laughing.
Stewart was trying to report on accusations that some firefighters were paying other firefighters in the department to work their shifts for them.
The Kansas City, Kansas firefighters may have been trying to compete with their counterparts in Kansas City, Missouri, who famously trolled a group of officers they had to rescue at the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Academy in April of 2016, after the elevator stalled because there was too much weight in it.
Local and national media immediately jumped on the picture, and it went viral.
You can see the video of the reporter’s live broadcast below: