Fire Dept. Takes Action on Sex Bias Allegations

The Los Angeles Fire Department has suspended a veteran fireman and transferred two battalion chiefs as a result of an investigation into reports that a woman firefighter was sexually harassed and that sexually explicit films were viewed at Fire Station 5 in Westchester.

Fire Chief Donald O. Manning told the City Fire Commission on Thursday that the accused firefighter, later identified as Anthony Morales, a firefighter for eight years, had elected to defend himself at a departmental Board of Rights hearing later this month.

Morales, who was suspended Wednesday, is accused of committing seven specific acts, which a departmental spokesman declined to discuss specifically but generally described as “conduct unbecoming to a member of the Fire Department.”

Chiefs Counseled

The two battalion chiefs were identified as Les Hawkes and Thomas Wilson, both veterans of more than 20 years in the department. A department spokesman said the two were counseled for their failure to know that “adult-oriented” material was being viewed at the station.

“It should be clear that any type of harassment--sexual, ethnic or religious--will not be tolerated,” Manning declared after Thursday’s commission meeting. “We will pursue and take the appropriate action in every case.”

Manning also said that the viewing of sexual material by members of the department while on duty “is not acceptable.” And he said he believes that it will be necessary to prepare guidelines on what is considered objectionable.

Charges that firefighters were viewing sexually oriented material on two shifts at Fire Station 5, at 6621 Manchester Ave., surfaced after two May meetings of women firefighters and women paramedics to discuss an unrelated professional topic.

According to the department, a subsequent investigation of the objections of a female paramedic to materials watched on television at the station led to reports that a woman firefighter serving the final weeks of a year’s probation had been sexually harassed.

Sources who asked to remain anonymous told The Times earlier this year that the woman was lifting weights in an upstairs dorm when a firefighter--wearing no clothes--entered the room and said something about “helping” her.

When the woman objected, the firefighter left the room, only to return a few minutes, again wearing no clothes, according to the sources. When it happened a third time, the woman firefighter broke off her workout and went downstairs.

The sources also claimed that the station maintained a “book locker” filled with sexually explicit magazines.