Rose Through Ranks Despite Bias : Black Wins Deputy Fire Chief Post

The highest-ranking black in the Los Angeles Fire Department, who felt the sting of racial discrimination in his early days as a city firefighter, has won an interim appointment as one of Fire Chief Donald O. Manning’s four top deputies.

The appointment of Assistant Chief Paul A. Orduna, 60, as deputy chief in charge of the Bureau of Support Services becomes effective Jan. 17, according to a departmental teletype sent to all fire stations.

Manning named Orduna as a deputy chief because there is no current list of candidates for the position. To keep his new job, Orduna must win it in Civil Service competition with other assistant chiefs. There are 17 assistant chiefs in the department.

Deputy Chief Retiring

Orduna takes over from Deputy Chief Timothy R. DeLuca, 53, who has been selected to replace Deputy Chief Darrel Thompson, 53, as commander of operations, the department’s second-highest post. Thompson is retiring after more than 32 years of service.

“I feel that I have earned a shot at this position,” Orduna said Wednesday. “And I’m excited about the challenge. I know that I will be competing against some very stiff competition, but I think I’m capable.”

Orduna’s journey from firefighter to assistant chief began in a period of turbulent race relations in the Fire Department in the mid-1950s.

After months of protests from the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and widespread public controversy over the unequal treatment of blacks, the City Fire Commission ordered desegration of the city’s fire stations in 1955.

Not in Black Station

Orduna was the first black firefighter on the Los Angeles Fire Department who did not serve in one of the city’s two black stations. And he very nearly did not get the job at all.

When he first applied in Los Angeles after four years of service on the fire department in Omaha, his hometown, he was given so low a score on the oral examination that he could not have qualified even if he had passed the written test with a 100% score.

But he returned in early 1957, cleared the test hurdles and was appointed the following September as the only black candidate in a class of 60. By Orduna’s account, the lot of a black firefighter in the newly integrated fire stations was not a happy one, as far as race relations were concerned.

“Nobody would talk to me,” he recalled. “Blacks (on different shifts) had to sleep in the same bed. I had to bring my own cooking utensils, and I had to wait until the others had eaten to fix my meals.” Orduna, who lives with his wife in Northridge, views his experience in the Fire Department without bitterness.

“I feel the department has evolved to the place where everybody is given an equal opportunity to success,” he said Wednesday. “Blacks are given an opportunity to compete fairly, and more blacks are taking part in the examination process.”

A pioneer black activist on the Fire Department, Arnett Hartsfield, who retired many years ago after a 20-year career, said he was “really elated” at Orduna’s interim appointment.

“It’s gratifying,” said Hartsfield, a lawyer who served as a member of the city Civil Service Commission after retiring.

“It shows that Chief Manning not only believes in affirmative action, but he has the courage to practice affirmative action. Paul Orduna was not the senior assitant chief. No one could have criticized Manning if he had chosen a more senior assistant chief.”

DeLuca, the fire official whose move to operations opened a spot for Orduna’s appointment, joined the department in May, 1958, at age 23. He has served as a deputy chief for nearly four years.