GAYLORD, Mich. — Meijer is facing backlash after reports that they fired a Gaylord employee for putting out a customer’s car fire.

David Bowers, a former greeter at the store, says he was terminated in November after he left his post inside the store to help with the vehicle fire.

Meijer would not go into specifics about the termination, but issued the following statement:

We appreciate and understand your passionate response to the recent issue in Gaylord. Please be assured that this was not a random decision. We have well-established safety procedures for emergency situations and we train all team members on those procedures. These procedures help ensure the safety of everyone – both customers and team members, and our team members know there are consequences when they don’t follow them. In this particular case, we feel we have to respect the privacy of the team member and therefore cannot get into the details which led us to this point.