A US firefighter has been sacked for putting toilet paper imprinted with President Barack Obama's face in a fire station bathroom

It was the third time Clint Pierce had posted political paraphernalia on city property and a violation of a direct order to cease and desist from such behaviour, according to city records.

He had until 5pm on Friday to turn in his badge.

"It was clearly a case of insubordination," said Sandra King, a spokeswoman for the city of Pompano Beach.

"He had a similar situation of posting political messages on city property, and he was given a free pass at that time and told to cease and desist, and he did it again and really exacerbated the situation."

Pierce, 50, had been with the department since November 1993. He could not be reached for comment on Friday.

The incident exhibited "tasteless and disrespectful treatment" of the President, "caused significant divisiveness within the department and community", and led to "a community outcry" and "negative national news coverage", fire chief Harry Small wrote in a November 29 order calling for Pierce's termination.

After investigating the toilet paper stunt, Small "found no evidence to indicate that Pierce's actions were racially motivated, but rather they were politically motivated".

But black activists in the city saw it differently, appearing in force at Tuesday's City Commission meeting to express dismay at what they saw as Pierce's disrespectful, offensive and racist actions, and to call for his dismissal.

"If you don't know what it means, I'm going to break it down to you very gently and very nice," Carlene Duncan said.

"It means 'we will wipe our butt with your face,' and that's not very nice. That's very disrespectful to our president.

"(Pierce) needs to be fired, and that is just the bottom line."

The toilet paper appeared in a Pompano Beach Fire Station restroom on October 19 and Pierce admitted putting it there as a "gag", city records show.

He had earlier placed a bumper sticker that "did not cast the President in a positive light" on his locker and had a coffee mug with a picture of the President portrayed as a clown.

Originally published as Firefighter sacked over Obama loo roll