Sunday, January 25, 2009

Deaf Fire Patrol Chief
(Name with-held by the author) In 1921, ( ) was re-elected to the same post as the Assistant Fire Patrol Chief from New Jersey. His responsiblity was to send out patrol, in two man teams, at places of potential fire hazards. He may have been the 'father' of modern industrialized fire brigades found at most large industries today. The duties are similar to security officers, but contracted out to the fire department. (from the collection of Steven Schrader)
Posted by Steven L Schrader at 9:19 PM


My other 'car' is a fire truck.


Posted by Steven L Schrader at 4:57 PM
(note) I cannot reveal my association/or location with a fire department without the specific consent of the PIO and public relation rules & regulations.

I am usually amazed, if not horrified, through numerous blogs and the internet, of those who claims to be an 'expert' at how to become a deaf firefighter, after having been a member of a 'volunteer' fire department, for less time than it took me, as a deaf 'paid/career' firefighter, until my retirement, to be able to call myself an 'expert.' I decided to speak up to counter the bad for the good of a manifest to offer a guideline on how to become a deaf firefighter the right way. When I decided to return to the fire department, only then I realized how much harder it was because of another 'wannabe deaf firefighter.'

To avoid the restriction and advance to combat firefighting, I debated if I was either selective hearing impaired or I was brain-washed, as a young child, into thinking I was deaf when I probably wasn’t really deaf. I was not going to admit I was deaf to the chief. But first, I asked the chief what he thought would happen to a normal child after placing him in a classroom of mental retarded children until he graduated. The child would obviously be mentally retarded. In the same fashion, I asked him what would happen to the same normal child after placing him in a classroom of deaf children until he graduated. The child would obviously be deaf-oriented, if not, brain-washed.

Then my cell phone rang. I answered. That ended the discussion if I was deaf or not. I had a friend, sitting in his car of the parking lot at headquarters, call me at a pre-arranged signal. I took off my cap when I was ready for him to call for that dramatic ‘drive-home the point’ effect. Truth be told, I can only understand those I only know by training myself to be familiar with their voices. Anybody else, I’d have to ask them to repeat.

Then I got to thinking about my very first audio logic hearing test. What normal child, at such a young age, is going to pay attention to tones and signals with a toy to keep me placid and not upset about the microphone, wires, speakers and a claustphoic room. Could it been that I had ignored the audiologist to play with the toy? Could it have been that I had an attention defect order?

I have always suspected, it was probably just a simple speech impediment a country doctor said I’d eventually grow out of. I told the fire chief I was really legally deaf and even, ‘deaf-educated.’ Kinda like being half white and black, but I wasn’t deaf mind you.

As for the other two deaf support firefighters, John B. was deaf-educated and Stanley, was mainstreamed. One was smarter than the other. While they may rightfully think their success in signing up was from the fear of the fire department not complying with the ADA, there is an inter-departmental policy about discrimination, but it is not an official fire department argumentation. It’s called pity, a natural inclination of society to bestow upon the less fortunate and the disabled.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act does prohibits state and local governments from discriminating against people who are deaf, and from excluding participation or denying benefits of programs, services or activities to people who are deaf. This includes typical fire department public relations, educational, fire prevention or smoke detector programs. The title does not, however, includes employment for a deaf firefighter, but prohibits the fire department from allowing citizens to participate in the programs.

The fire department also knows that the ADA law does not apply to them when they already know they can claim financial burden. It is strictly a public relation project. Even if the fire department hired a deaf firefighter, and it was approved by National Firefighter Standards or the local Chief Association, the insurance company and the general public has the final say-so. He could be a volunteer, but keep an eye on him.

Headquarters eventually sent the two deaf support firefighters to their stations in hope that they will quit or be run off by the other firefighters. The instructors were probably already aware and frustrated of their difficulties at taking a test and reading technical manuals. The department did provide expensive interpreters for them for their entire 60 hours of support firefighter training. The interpreters had been given permission by the training division to ‘interpret’ the test into the American Sign Language in which the same test should have been the ‘ultimate test’ to see if a deaf applicant has the required education.

On the part of a deaf applicant, no favors, modifications, accommodation or pity should be accepted. It will clearly demonstrate to the fire department of ones determination and desire to be a regular firefighter.
(Note) Not to be reproduced or reprinted without the consent of the author)

This site is to be considered a manifest of how to become a deaf firefighter or an Emergency Medical Technican by Steven L Schrader, the author of 'Silent Alarm; On The Edge With A Deaf EMT.' (Gallaudet Publication) After 30 years in the fire service, paid and career, from Atlanta, Georgia, Steven retired and enlisted in the Georgia State Department of Defense as a medic at Fort Stewart. He is currently a volunteer support/wildland firefighter in Florida and he is currently writing a new book, 'How To Be A Deaf Fireman.' This blog should be consider an excellent resource and can be used as a guide line in the pursuit of becoming a deaf firefighter.

(All Engines stand-by for tac channel)

Author’s Introduction

Truth or Consequences?

The deaf community said I was never deaf. That I had lied, cheated and outwitted them into thinking I have always been deaf my entire life. A few thought I duped myself into inferring I was deaf when I really wasn’t deaf. The other kids I grew up with at a deaf school taunted me for not acting like I was deaf. They all might’ve been right, though. Maybe I was never really deaf.

The rest of my hearing friends and former partners, were never so sure if I was deaf or not. They said I had all the characteristics and traits of a deaf man and when seen in public, they disappeared. I had several deaf wives, attended deaf events and went to a school for the deaf, but still, my hearing friends might’ve been right all along too. Maybe I was never really deaf.

After retiring as a deaf firefighter, I enlisted into the military as a medic at Fort Stewart. Then they said they had their proof that I was not deaf and lied about it to take advantage of them. For the nine years in the military, I was not deaf and had all but divorced myself from the deaf community. I never looked back. I was beginning to think then I was never really a deaf firefighter and an emergency medical technician.

It was easier in the military, than as a deaf firefighter, for everybody in the army was hearing impaired and constantly screamed at each others to hear. Everybody was from different places with different dialects, rendering my own speech impediment as indifference to theirs. Lip-reading was critical, but avoid being obvious. A dead giveaway. After a medical discharge for a severe injury sustained during a night navigation training at Fort Stewart, I moved to another state with the intention of going back to the fire department.

In Florida, a fire chief asked me if I was deaf. I decided then I wasn’t deaf to avoid the restraints imposed upon two other deaf support firefighters. One of them demanded I share his restriction to not enter a burning structure fire, but, to merely provide supports on a fire ground operation. Both of them demonstrated stark contrast to each others with the amount and kind of education they received. They share the same typical profile of a deaf man and his natural inclinations societies generally consider as idiosyncratic. They were the psychological set for writing this book.

Steven L Schrader

The History of the Deaf Fireman (Review of Chapter One)

In 1886, officials at the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf & Dumb, in Hartford, surveyed a list of former pupils who graduated and became employed. Among the artists, bakers, blacksmith, brakeman and bricklayers, one man was listed as a fireman.

In 1889, the Georgia School for the Deaf & Dumb sent its own deaf fire brigade, to the annual Southeast Fireman Convention in Atlanta to compete against other fire departments. The brigade came home with an engraved silver platter for the best in the bucket-carrying event. Superintendent Wesley O. Conner was their fire chief.

During the Civil War, Wesley Conner was a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, within sight of the deaf institute in Columbus, Ohio. When he returned to re-open the Georgia Asylum for the Deaf & Dumb, in 1867, there would be a military cadet program and a deaf fire brigade for the asylum.

‘In Columbus, Ohio, about ten years ago, (1879) at the deaf-mute institute, there was a hose company composed of deaf boys, except one, who could hear and speak.’ On the campus, a building had apparently been converted as a hose room, or a bay with a wheeled hose cart. They slept upstairs with the bunks pulled close together. When the alarm sounded, the one who could hear and speak woke the one beside him. In turn, each will wake the next one. They would proceed down the brass pole, pull out the hose cart and proceed to the fire alarm on the campus.

During training, an alarm was sounded and the fire was nearby the deaf institute. ‘They went straight to it although not connected with the city department and got it under control before the city department arrived. You can hardly imagine the city chief’s surprise when he found all but one were deaf.’ The chief eventually commended them and said, ‘had it not been for them, there would have been a worse conflagration.’

One of the boys was John Botrum . After graduating, John went on to become ‘one of the most active firemen in Reading. He holds a responsible position in ‘Hampden No. 6' and never fails to respond to an alarm. R. G. Kingsley, another member of the same hose company at the deaf institute, was being honored for his five year anniversary membership with the Woodland Fire, a community outside Chicago.

Sixty-nine years old and deaf, John Dougherty was promoted from assistant chief to chief after the death of Dennis Sullivan during the great 1906 San Francisco earth-quake and the firestorm that preceded the devastating disaster. ‘The roar of the fire had been so great, many would be nearly deaf for days.’ A deaf fireman was reported to have been killed while fighting the fire. A historian claimed the ‘San Francisco event was a minor seismic event, but a major social event and a major scientific event that had huge importance on American history.’ A critic disagreed with him. ‘And those answers are of such profound importance that niggling around with whether there were 500 or 50 or 300, whether they were shot, whether they died under falling buildings, whether there was a deaf fireman, are so unimportant. They’re the stuff of tabloid journalism. They’re not the stuff of history.’ Winchester responded, ‘You don’t cover the moments in history. Journalists cover moments. Historians look back on them with perspective and have, I think, a wider view which does not encompass the tiny details of whether there was a deaf fireman shot. It’s of no consequence whatsoever.’

(Note) Not to be reprinted without the author's consent.