The Force Is With Him : City’s First Vietnamese Firefighter Is Welcomed Addition

Son Nguyen knew fighting fires wasn’t easy, but was it supposed to be like this?

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Propane tanks exploded around him. Twisted, burning metal flew through the air. Flames as tall as buildings raced down the hill. Helpless, he crawled under a firetruck to seek cover.

“There was nothing much we could do,” said Nguyen, recalling the time he spent last year helping to defend El Morro Beach Mobile Home Park as an Orange County volunteer firefighter during the devastating Laguna Beach fire.

The experience could have forced him to reconsider his boyhood dream of becoming a firefighter, as his parents hoped he would. Instead, Nguyen said, his ambition burned even deeper.

And now, Nguyen, 23, has fulfilled his dream. Last month he joined the Garden Grove Fire Department, becoming the first Vietnamese American on the 94-member force.

Along with Nguyen, five other firefighters, including three Latinos, were hired following a recruitment campaign in the city’s minority communities. More Orange County cities are recruiting bilingual police officers and firefighters, officials said.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Garden Grove Battalion Chief Keith Osborn. “It makes our job easier. It allows us to react to emergencies quicker.”

Because Orange County communities are becoming more diverse, Osborn said, firefighters who speak a second language are becoming more essential, particularly during medical emergencies, which make up about 75% of the calls to most fire stations.

“In the past, we made an educated guess” on those occasions when firefighters had to deal with a patient who didn’t speak English, Osborn said.

“But when the patient has his hands on his chest, is he having a heart attack? We need to talk to him. We need to know his medical history real quick,” he said.

According to a survey of the county’s 15 fire departments, Nguyen appears to be their only full-time firefighter of Vietnamese descent. Westminster and Fountain Valley, which have fairly large Vietnamese populations, do not yet have Vietnamese American firefighters, although city officials said efforts are being made to recruit members from the community.

Capt. Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department said that 13 Asian Americans, including one woman, are among the county’s 693 firefighters, but he could not provide the ethnic breakdown.

Young said the county, which provides fire services to 18 cities and unincorporated areas, has not lowered its hiring standards in trying to create a more diverse work force.

“We expect them to be more educated and provide greater performance,” he said. “We want the employee to feel that they have earned the job.”

Leaders of the Vietnamese community, the second largest ethnic group in Garden Grove, applauded Nguyen’s hiring.

“This is a good step the city has taken,” said Mai Cong, president of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a nonprofit group. “This will benefit those who have difficulty speaking English, especially the older Vietnamese.”

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There are more than 15,000 Vietnamese Americans in Garden Grove, according to the 1990 Census. Latinos are the largest ethnic group, at more than 32,000, while the city’s population of 143,000 is still predominantly white.

Mayor Frank Kessler, a former Garden Grove police chief, said there are no set goals on the number of minority police officers and firefighters to be hired by the city because this would be akin to setting a quota, which would violate the city’s hiring policy.

But bilingual applicants for public safety positions have the edge over those who speak only one language, Kessler said. Still, of the Fire Department’s 94 firefighters, just 16 are minorities. There are 13 Latinos, one African American, one Asian American and one Native American.

Among the Police Department’s 161-member force are six Asian Americans, six African Americans and 17 Latinos.

“It’s very difficult to recruit in the minority communities,” Kessler said. “Part of that is cultural, because Asian parents believe their children have better opportunities in other fields.”

This was true in Nguyen’s case--initially.

Nguyen and his family arrived in the United States from Vietnam in 1975 when he was 3 years old. He still speaks fluent Vietnamese.

His father, Duoc, 59, and mother, Duyen, 47, at first opposed his becoming a firefighter. They wanted him to pursue a college education and find a “suitable” career.

But Nguyen, whose dream of being a firefighter began in junior high school after he watched paramedics attend to his mother several times at their Huntington Beach home, said he persisted.

After graduating from Ocean View High School in 1989, he became a volunteer firefighter with Fountain Valley and the county. He then enrolled in the fire technology program at Rancho Santiago College, where he earned a certificate in 1992.

He completed a three-month course at the Orange County Firefighters Training Academy in Huntington Beach and was certified as an emergency medical technician.

Then, he began his search for a full-time job, applying in various Southland cities, as well as in Oregon and Arizona.

Now that he is a full-time firefighter, his next goal is to be a paramedic, where he feels his bilingual skills are most needed.

“It’s a little extra that he can give the community,” said Fire Capt. Dave Barlag, who heads the three-man crew Nguyen has been assigned to. “He has done real well, his skills are really good, he has a good attitude and (is) real ambitious.”

Barlag said Nguyen’s skills and knowledge of the job will be evaluated after six months. Another evaluation will be made at the end of his rookie year.

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Osborn, the battalion chief, said that about 20% of new firefighters do not make it to their second year. There are various reasons for dropping out, he said, but the most common are pressure from family because of the irregular schedule and lack of a commitment to constantly improve.

After the second year, however, very few leave until they retire, Osborn said. The key is attitude, he added, because to be a firefighter takes lifetime commitment.

Rookie firefighters earn about $2,500 a month, and pay can rise to $3,300 a month for firefighters who are paramedics as well.

“It feels good to be here,” said Nguyen, adding that his parents are now proud to say he is a firefighter. “This is something that I have always wanted. I’m happy that I can help break the language barrier with the Vietnamese community.”