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THE LAFD FIREFIGHTING "EXPERIMENT"
Women Firefighters: The Gender Boondoggle
City Hall's dream of recruiting more females is a multimillion-dollar disaster
Author>By Christine PelisekWednesday, January 23, 2008 - 9:59 am
LINK TO THE FULL STORY FROM: DOMELIGHTS.COM
The fresh-looking rookie firefighters, decked out in black hats, pants and shirts, pose by a hook-and-ladder truck, smiling broadly at a crowd of graduation-day guests. Firefighters pass out Cokes and nachos, and young girls rush giggling past the drill tower — a six-story concrete replica of an apartment building — to check out the sweatshirts for sale by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
With the national anthem booming, the celebration at Drill Academy 40 on Terminal Island takes on a circus quality. The huge fire-station door yawns open, revealing the rookies — now orderly and marching forth — trailed by theatrical "smoke." Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a no-show, and so is Fire Chief Douglas Barry — off at a conference in Salt Lake City — so the grads are welcomed by Battalion Chief Emile Mack, who tells them the Los Angeles firefighter is an "American icon."
It is impossible not to notice that every one of the 42 rookies graduating on December 7 is male.
Three women were supposed to graduate. One was a 48-year-old grandmother — an emergency medical technician and former airport baggage handler who failed key physical tests just weeks into the fire-academy training. Another, a young former soccer player for Notre Dame, nearly made it through, but failed on drills to raise heavy wooden ladders against a building — as firefighters must do during a fire. The third was a tough former Air Force intelligence officer, terminated from the academy because she couldn't maintain the grueling pace.
Also read Christine Pelisek's
Lawsuit Sweepstakes at LAFD.
What remains is a wall of men that typifies City Hall's two-decade effort, launched by long-departed city Fire Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane, and council members like Jackie Goldberg, who espoused the popular but untested view that fire departments should be 20 percent female. Women, it was widely held, were discriminatorily kept off the fire lines.
That sounded right. Women had been kept out of police work and were finally, in the 1990s, flooding into jobs as cops. Wasn't firefighting the same problem, with the same solution?
To prove its point, Los Angeles City Hall — just like Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego and other major cities, together with state governments — spent millions to recruit, train and house women. Los Angeles outfitted most of its 106 fire stations with costly women's lockers and women's showers, while politicians as well as fire chiefs Donald Manning and William Bamattre engaged in years of lip service, conjuring up an image of a new, professional class of woman firefighters.
Women came to figure prominently in the praise party on the LAFD's Web site, www.LAFD.org, where the Hero of the Month, for six months running — in a department of mostly men — has been Tamara Chick, a woman so key to the department's goals that she is now in charge of female recruitment.
There's just one problem, and it's a problem no fire chief, mayor or recruiter wants to admit. In a department of 3,940 people, the second largest municipal firefighting force in the U.S., the Weekly has learned that the women who work on the fire line could squeeze inside a Hummer limo.
Just 27 women are actually fighting Los Angeles fires.
LINK TO THE FULL STORY FROM: DOMELIGHTS.COM
This story is absolutely stunning. I defy anyone who is in the fire service reading this with an open mind to defend this nonsense. I believe in tough standards and hiring the best people regardless of any human characteristics. Apparently those making the decisions don't and are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on social engineering. These failed policies have been ripping the heart and soul out of the American Fire Service for a generation. Not to mention wasting money that could be used for making drastically needed improvements in areas such as staffing, training, equipment and facilities.
Sooner or later the chickens come home to roost. I just hope I'm not around that day. This story is even more stunning because it was actually printed in a major newspaper. I encourage everyone to read this story. It's long but worth it.
City Hall's dream of recruiting more females is a multimillion-dollar disaster
Author>By Christine PelisekWednesday, January 23, 2008 - 9:59 am
LINK TO THE FULL STORY FROM: DOMELIGHTS.COM
The fresh-looking rookie firefighters, decked out in black hats, pants and shirts, pose by a hook-and-ladder truck, smiling broadly at a crowd of graduation-day guests. Firefighters pass out Cokes and nachos, and young girls rush giggling past the drill tower — a six-story concrete replica of an apartment building — to check out the sweatshirts for sale by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
With the national anthem booming, the celebration at Drill Academy 40 on Terminal Island takes on a circus quality. The huge fire-station door yawns open, revealing the rookies — now orderly and marching forth — trailed by theatrical "smoke." Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a no-show, and so is Fire Chief Douglas Barry — off at a conference in Salt Lake City — so the grads are welcomed by Battalion Chief Emile Mack, who tells them the Los Angeles firefighter is an "American icon."
It is impossible not to notice that every one of the 42 rookies graduating on December 7 is male.
Three women were supposed to graduate. One was a 48-year-old grandmother — an emergency medical technician and former airport baggage handler who failed key physical tests just weeks into the fire-academy training. Another, a young former soccer player for Notre Dame, nearly made it through, but failed on drills to raise heavy wooden ladders against a building — as firefighters must do during a fire. The third was a tough former Air Force intelligence officer, terminated from the academy because she couldn't maintain the grueling pace.
Also read Christine Pelisek's
Lawsuit Sweepstakes at LAFD.
What remains is a wall of men that typifies City Hall's two-decade effort, launched by long-departed city Fire Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane, and council members like Jackie Goldberg, who espoused the popular but untested view that fire departments should be 20 percent female. Women, it was widely held, were discriminatorily kept off the fire lines.
That sounded right. Women had been kept out of police work and were finally, in the 1990s, flooding into jobs as cops. Wasn't firefighting the same problem, with the same solution?
To prove its point, Los Angeles City Hall — just like Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego and other major cities, together with state governments — spent millions to recruit, train and house women. Los Angeles outfitted most of its 106 fire stations with costly women's lockers and women's showers, while politicians as well as fire chiefs Donald Manning and William Bamattre engaged in years of lip service, conjuring up an image of a new, professional class of woman firefighters.
Women came to figure prominently in the praise party on the LAFD's Web site, www.LAFD.org, where the Hero of the Month, for six months running — in a department of mostly men — has been Tamara Chick, a woman so key to the department's goals that she is now in charge of female recruitment.
There's just one problem, and it's a problem no fire chief, mayor or recruiter wants to admit. In a department of 3,940 people, the second largest municipal firefighting force in the U.S., the Weekly has learned that the women who work on the fire line could squeeze inside a Hummer limo.
Just 27 women are actually fighting Los Angeles fires.
LINK TO THE FULL STORY FROM: DOMELIGHTS.COM
This story is absolutely stunning. I defy anyone who is in the fire service reading this with an open mind to defend this nonsense. I believe in tough standards and hiring the best people regardless of any human characteristics. Apparently those making the decisions don't and are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on social engineering. These failed policies have been ripping the heart and soul out of the American Fire Service for a generation. Not to mention wasting money that could be used for making drastically needed improvements in areas such as staffing, training, equipment and facilities.
Sooner or later the chickens come home to roost. I just hope I'm not around that day. This story is even more stunning because it was actually printed in a major newspaper. I encourage everyone to read this story. It's long but worth it.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Captain 46 on January 28, 2008 at 1:43am
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I don't personally want to share a bathroom, bunk room, fire truck, handline or buddy breathe with anyone who is incompetent. I accept they probably won't be as good as me but they better be good enough to back me up.
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Comment by Dennis on January 27, 2008 at 6:56pm
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So are you agreeing with what I wrote? (Actually echoed what the original authors wrote?) Is it possible that my observations in this matter are valid and thereby acknowledge that the fire service (And society) have BIG problems?
Or am I just another women bashing, angry white boy?
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I agree about facilities. But they should be proportionate for need. In Philly there is one bunkroom for all firefighters. You get a bunk and a blanket & pillow. It ain't the Hilton. We set aside a bathroom for females as needed. Locker rooms are shared but we're grown ups and alternate usage. Our job is too important to be weighed down by non-sense, but that isn't always the case.
Now my question to you is how do you feel when you see other people hired or promoted who don't deserve it?
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I'm sensing a theme also. It's called social engineering. Thats where people who have no idea about a profession or profession arbitrarily decide that the racial and gender composition of said profession does not meet their idea of the ideal norm. (The ideal norm being undefined) Of course if the government was spending millions of precious tax dollars on failed social agendas (like recruiting white men) I would have a problem with that as well. It just so happens that white men have no right to a job or promotion and can't sue anyone if they don't get it qualified or not. I have no problem making women comfortable in any facility, thats not the issue. But why were at it what's next Muslim prayer rooms? How about a chapel for the Catholics? Where does it end? The role for Government is to hire the best possible people for the job based on a set of clearly defined standards. Having a moving goal line does a disservice to our "Customers" who depend on us to save them from death.
It clear that this social engineering is aimed at departments that are male dominated, and Caucasian dominated. This is most often Police of Fire Departments. Ironically departments like streets, transportation, sanitation, or professions like teaching where the racial and gender makeup is anything but Caucasian or male are never targeted for this social engineering. Why not? Is "Diversity a one way street" Apparently the answer is yes. Where is the evidence that these programs do anything to enhance the delivery of service? Where is the cost analysis? Or are these open ended Government programs unworthy of scrutiny. If so why?
This engineering is also done at taxpayers expense without any evidence that these programs achieve anything other than appeasing vocal critics for political expediency. To the tune of millions of dollars. This also cheapens the real achievement of people (Like yourself I presume) who have worked hard and achieved your goal through hard work and determination. Remember hard work and determination? Those qualities used to be valued in our society. Today I'm not so sure. They also discourage others from trying due to the bias injected in the processes. Isn't the goal to eliminate bias?
When I was in basic training I was still a skinny 18 year old kid. From day one the D.I. told me I would never make it. He rode me mercilessly. But as time wore on I became determined to never let him have the pleasure of seeing me fail. Come graduation day I graduated as a member of the Honor Platoon. I made it and it was one of the sweetest moments in my life when he handed me my papers. I earned his respect despite his best efforts to take me out. He taught me valuable lessons about hard work and not quitting. Lessons that I take with me still to this day. It did not matter to either of us that he was a minority. He took a skinny white kid and taught him valuable lessons that paved the way for me to succeed in the rest of my life. Thats how I got where I am today.
So every day when I get up and go to the firehouse I thank God for Drill Instructor SFC. A.D. Denson, United States Army for throwing me out of my bunk when I overslept. For road marching me until I had blisters on my feet and tears in my eyes. For chewing me out when ever I screwed up. For shaving my head and kicking my ass. I also thank God I had a D.I. who was there because he was a solid professional and not some politically correct "Quota".
There is also a negative effect brought about by this public policy. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thats the lowering of standards. (Ironic in a profession obsessed with "Standards don't you think?) This lowering of standards has an effect on the profession like any deterioration of quality would. Imagine a construction firm that hired people who looked right but couldn't build. Would you buy a house from them? Of course not. So what does a contractor do in this situation when forced to hire people who aren't competent? He hires extra people who are and gives the non qualified people busy work. Of course that increases his overhead and that cost is passed directly on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. In the Emergency services those costs are passed on in the form of out of court settlements and deaths.
The competent people also begin to resent the idiots because of course they make the same money for doing less or no work at all. Of course you also have to promote some of the non qualified people who are now in charge of the hard workers who may have been passed over.
So Yeah I guess you could call it a theme. I didn't invent this theme. I merely blog about it. If you don't agree with my contention make your case. Somehow I suspect you worked hard enough to know I'm not just blowing smoke.
PS: If you check out my blog you will see that I just don't comment on women. Not all my comments make it over to FF Nation.
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