Bay Area/ San Jose/ Community & Society
Published on October 07, 2022
San Jose Fire Department has some explaining to do over stripper scandal Image: Grendelkhan via Wikimedia Commons

The San Jose Fire Department is on its heels, so to speak, over a viral video involving a strip club that has been making the rounds for the last 24 hours. And it’s created a firestorm that has spread from social media to the highest levels of City Hall. What appears to be an exotic dancer was inside a fire department truck, as the Chronicle reports, and then leaves the vehicle wearing nothing but heels and a bikini, and proceeds directly into an “All Nude Adult Entertainment” club called the Pink Poodle. 

 

The video is seen above, and you can jump to your own conclusions. The Chronicle gives the additional detail that the woman is “walking into the Pink Poodle, an adult entertainment club at 328 Bascom Avenue.” The Pink Poodle bills itself as “The Best and Longest running All Nude Adult Entertainment in the Bay.” So even in just the bikini, she may have felt a little overdressed in the establishment.

The San Jose Fire Department obviously has a fire of a different kind to put out here. “The Department has become aware of a concerning video posted on social media,” SJ Fire Chief Robert Sapien Jr. said in a press release obtained by the Chronicle. “An investigation has been initiated to determine facts surrounding the video.”

The matter is no joke to San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “If the investigation concludes that this video is as bad as it looks, then heads must roll,” Licxardo said in a statement to KRON4.  “We cannot have a life-critical emergency rescue apparatus relegated to a frat party bus, nor tolerate any conduct that so demeans the heroic work of the rest of our SJFD team. I trust that [Fire] Chief Robert Sapien, as one of our nation’s finest fire chiefs, will respond accordingly."

We will surely learn more detail about the circumstances at play here in the weeks to come. And who knows, there may be a genuine misunderstanding, or some context that the brief video does not provide. But as things look, this is a terrible black eye for the San Jose Fire Department.

But for the Pink Poodle adult entertainment club, this is probably better advertising than money can buy.