By FireRescue1 Staff

DELL RAPIDS, S.D. — A volunteer firefighter was terminated Saturday after posting racist comments on Facebook.

Dell Rapids Fire Rescue fired John Nygaard after he posted a comment stating, “Think we should make slaves again.” KDLT reported the comment was posted on the page of a university student who was expelled last week after a Snapchat photo of her and a friend wearing black face masks and racist comments went viral.

Facebook users screen-shotted Nygaard’s post and posted it to the department’s page.

The department released the following statement via Facebook:

"John is no longer a member of our volunteer organization. Dell Rapids fire would like to apologize on behalf of our former member for his insensitive and narrow minded comments on Facebook. This is something we take very seriously and this type of thinking will not be tolerated by our members."