31 Receive Fire Captain Badges

Mayor Tom Bradley handed badges to 31 newly promoted fire captains and the highest-ranking black on the Los Angeles Fire Department on Thursday in a City Hall ceremony held to demonstrate the city’s progress toward affirmative action goals.

Among those firefighters promoted were seven blacks, three Latinos and one Asian.

Bradley noted that the promotions doubled the number of black captains in the department and increased the number of Latino captains to 44.

“So you see, we have come a giant step forward in this effort to open up opportunities for everyone,” Bradley said. “And no special favors were given to anybody. They all took the same exam. It was tough for all of them.”

Paul A. Orduna, 60, a 30-year veteran, won an interim promotion to one of the department’s four top deputy chiefs, heading the Bureau of Support Services.

Since 1974, the Fire Department has operated under a consent decree between the city and the U.S. Justice Department. The agreement requires that 50% of the department’s new recruits be black, Latino and Asian each year until the percentages of those minorities in the department equal the proportions in the city’s population.