LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Collapse shoring
While reading my November issue, I was suitably impressed. The entire issue was excellent, especially the articles “Collapse Search and Rescue Operations: Tactics and Procedures Part 7: The Steel Square,” by John P. O’Connell, and “Direct Attack on Cabin Fires in Small Commercial Vessels, Part 1,” by Bill Gustin. I can easily relate to both topics because I’m in the Navy. My job, in fact, is damage control. As a shipboard DC man, I’m responsible for training the rest of the crew in shipboard firefighting and damage control techniques, including the shoring of weakened bulkhead walls. Although our method of shoring is slightly different, the basic idea is the same.
In any case, keep up the great job; I’m anxiously awaiting the next issue. My training time is about to become much more effective.
Aandrew Jillard
Damage Control
U.S. Navy
USS Comstock
Workplace bias
I found the tone and content of “Workplace Bias: Wrong by Any Name, at Any Time, for Everybody” (Editor’s Opinion, November 1993) disturbing. You suggest that as the fire service has become more diversified, the standards tor its members have been lowered. I do not believe this to be the case.
If you would compare the hiring and performance standards of, say, 35 years ago with those of today, you would find the demands placed on today’s firefighters greatly surpass those of previous times. Qualities required today include not only the physical but also the academic and psychosocial. We have come from virtually no educational requirements to a large percentage of recruits having college degrees. I fail to see how that is lowering standards.
You are not specific in your references to hiring practices, so I do not know exactly where “hiring and promotion decisions are based on skin color” alone. If you are referring to systems that attempt to increase the diversity of their workforce by examining the impact of hiring practices on underrepresented groups, you are seriously misstating the case. I, too, believe that we should have high standards and should strive fo+r excellence. However, there is much more to this job than a written exam or an agility test. So much of the service we provide is based on caring for and interacting with the public that I question whether it is possible for an all-white male fire department to provide excellent service to a racially and culturally diverse community.
When I hear firefighters object to the “discrimination” or “reverse discrimination” of affirmative action, I wonder where their concern was when fire departments would not hire or promote minorities or, more recently, “”‘men. Were they fighting to lift those bar , or were they happy with discrimination then? The negativism of writings like this editorial tends to be simplistic and to have a divisive effect. Everyone feels cheated and blames it on the other groups. How about a positive approach to dealing with a complex issue? I for one believe it is possible to have both diversity and excellence. Let’s work toward that.
Ruth Obadal
Battalion Chief
Kansas City (MO) Fire Department
I must write to congratulate and thank you for bringing issues that have been an erosive undercurrent within the fire service to the surface. The bold topics of your Editor’s Opinion column—from a gritty look at the NFPA to the “Line in the Hallway” to the most recent “Workplace Bias”—have us breathing a sigh of relief in the firehouse. We no longer ask, “Is it just us?” The fire service has been on a bewildering path.
Fire/rescue is a dangerous profession. To us volunteers, it is a dangerous avocation. The moment we make the conscious decision to respond to a call for help, our safety is inherently compromised. The risk is taken because someone else’s life/livelihood is in greater peril. We needn’t be hamstrung in performing our duties by overbearing standards and the disciples of ‘ those standards who at times seem to be slaves to the written word. The fire scene is dynamic. As anyone who has conducted a primary search knows, safety must be viewed in relative—not absolute—terms.
As a civil service employee and public administration grad student, 1 found “Workplace Bias” very exciting. Are standardized tests (i.e., civil service) valid predictors of performance? Perhaps. This system is in place—ostensibly—to level the playing field. One thing is certain, however: Quotas and other hocus-pocus hiring practices only serve to feed the malcontent already too pervasive in our society.
Once again, thank you. I look forward to Fire Engineering and the Editor’s Opinion each month.
Michael R. Glore
Lieutenant
Good Intent Fire Co.
Pottsville. Pennsylvania
“Workplace Bias” hit the nail on the head, and I want to applaud you for an extremely well-written, informative article. Of the various emergency magazines 1 read throughout the month, this is the first article that questions the hiring practices and its inequalities. Thank you. Maybe this article could be placed strategically on every human resources office table! Unfortunately, that probably wouldn’t accomplish a thing, either.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who read and agreed with your opinion, nor am I the only person who has faced this dilemma when applying for a firefighter recruit position. I have tested for a municipality that didn’t have a physical agility because the unfairness of the test was legally challenged die year before. My hometown department went door to door two months before a test date was announced looking for minority candidates and urging them to apply; they were given extra two months to prepare. I cringe every time I fill out an application and i come to the “sex” and “ethnic background” section. I am all for individuals who can legitimately pass all aspects of the recruit process. More power to them. Unfortunately, fair is no longer fair.
Charles Sullivan
Firefighter!EMT
I wish to thank you for your “Workplace Bias editorial. It reveals the true nature and philosophy of your magazine. I had not observed your all-majority staff, editorial advisory board, columnist/contributing editors, et al. until this overbearing, selfserving communication.
Ronald C. Lewis
Chief Fire and Emergency Services
City of Richmond, Virginia
Many points in the “Workplace Bias” editorial disturbed me. One was the fact that our hiring and promotional decisions are based on skin color, not competency. For many years this has been done using nonminority candidates, correct? What I believe may be happening is that now many departments are instituting a policy to possibly resolve some racial inequalities that may exist, and it seems unfair to you. Just as you have voiced your opinion, try to imagine all of the minority candidates who were bypassed and could not voice any opinion for many years. Do we feel this was unfair to them?
The article asked, “Why the senselessness? To make reparation for the sins of our fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers?” As a minority firefighter, I would only hope that our government is finally realizing that, yes, there are many inequalities and that maybe it is finally going to do something about them.
1 must agree that there are many shining examples of minority’ firefighters who excel, achieve, and contribute by virtue of self-empowerment; however, would these individuals always receive the same advancement opportunities as the samescoring nonminority firefighter would? I rhave heard many stories of how individuals got into the fire service by virtue of the candidate they voted for or of receiving a telephone call asking them if they wanted an employment opportunity with the fire service. However, none of these stories involve minorities.
Last year, an engine in my battalion had gone to a school to do an inspection, and one of the children made the statement, “I wish I were white so I could be a fireman.” When they returned to quarters, the crew called me and told me the story. No, I did plot stop by to see the child. 1 personally felt belittled by the fact that in 1992 this type of attitude still existed. Then I looked around at the number of minorities in the fire department, and I understood why the student felt that way.
We have been practicing racial inequality; now that the shoe is on the other foot, it is injustice—or is it? Many minorities have been kept out of the department. Was this injustice? I agree 100 percent that public safety should not in any way be compromised. 1 do believe that quotas need to be met and maintained so that our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren do not have to go through the misfortunes we have had to go through.
Jim Artis, Jr.
Baltimore, Maryland
Evaluating apparatus bids
William C. Peters’ article on evaluating apparatus bids (“Apparatus Bid Evaluation: Simplifying a Difficult Process,” October 1993) was interesting. His thoughts are right on target, given the complexity of fire apparatus purchasing. He gives a r familiar scenario in which one bid is substantially lower than the other bids, but careful inspection of the association specifications shows deviation from what the fire department desired, s I believe our fire department has a means for averting this problem. We require manufacturer representatives to submit the specifications on which their bid is based a few weeks before the actual bid opening date. We are very careful to instruct manufacturers that no price quotes or other price information be submitted with these specifications. Failure to submit the specifications before bid opening is cause for bid rejection. Having a price or pricing structure with the specifications is also cause for bid rejection. The latter is to avoid any appearance of improperness. We usually have a prebid manufacturers’ conference with representatives to go over the specifications. At this conference, we carefully explain the requirement that specifications be submitted before the bid.
By having all the specifications submitted before the bids, our apparatus committee has the time to carefully evaluate any differences. On occasion, we have found that some features we specified were omitted. We then can tell the representatives they forgot something. This avoids controversy at delivery time. The prebid analysis allows us to make fully informed recommendations to our board at the time bids are opened. If there are significant differences, we are able to offer reasons for the lower bid.
Richard Carlson
Fire Chief
Okolona (KY) Fire Protection District
Wildland fire safety recommendations
As a volunteer firefighter living in a wildland/urban interface, I made the following recommendations in a letter to the California state fire marshal.
“I recommend the following for every California fire engine and all firefighters responding on a strike team to all major wildland/urban interface internal fires:
- that a programmable radio be available on the engine (it is vital to be able to communicate with the other departments involved);
- that each firefighter on the fire engine have a fire shelter tent;
- that the front bumper have mounted on it remote-controlled nozzles that can be activated from inside the engine and that have water supplied to them as the engine travels down the road, or that a 1 1/2-inch charged fire hose that can be pulled into the cab be coiled on top of the hosebed (this would protect the crew whether in a stationary or mobile position); and
- that the cab be all metal and enclosed so that no fire can get into it and the crew will be protected.”
Dan Piker
Hume Lake (CA) Fire Department
