Photo by triborough.

A senior official in D.C. Fire and Emergency Services was suspended this week for comments he made on Twitter and Facebook, reports the Washington Times.

Lon Walls, the department’s director of communications, inflamed passions when he accused firefighters of being racists when they stood and turned their backs on Chief Keith Ellerbe during his State of the Department speech recently. Though he made the comments on his personal Facebook page and Twitter account, his superiors decided that it would be best for him to take a few days off, writes the Times.

Beyond the turmoil within the ranks of the city’s fire department (read the City Paper’s Loose Lips for a good primer), the situation is certainly rich with irony. Last September, it was Walls that opined that “social media is for parties…we ain’t givin’ parties” after the department decided to silence its popular Twitter feed over concerns that sensitive information was going out to its over 10,000 followers. (After an awkward transition, tweeting has resumed in earnest, but remains less significant than it was in the past.)