ACLU Criticizes Lack of Asian Firefighters

Davee Hazama has wanted to be a firefighter since he was 12.

“I was in awe of the firefighters when I toured the station as a kid,” he said of his hometown Fire Department in San Gabriel. “I was only as high as the wheel of the firetruck.”

Nearly two decades later, after a career change, some strenuous physical training, two extra years of schooling and service as a volunteer fire cadet, Hazama is finally a firefighter--one of the few Asian Americans who hold that job in Los Angeles County. And he’s working in the same station he visited as a child.

But Hazama’s dream come true is an exception.

A recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that there are few Asian American firefighters in Southern California. Some of the cities with the worst records are San Gabriel, Monterey Park and Alhambra, each with a population that is at least 30% Asian. Hazama, for example, is the only Asian American firefighter in the San Gabriel department.

Officials in those cities defend their efforts, however. They say they are doing all they can to recruit Asian Americans, but that qualified applicants are hard to find and their small departments with limited openings cannot keep pace with the area’s rapidly changing demographics.

“We don’t hire at the same rate as the population changes,” said Pam Hyland, personnel director for Monterey Park. “People start with us in their 20s and retire with us. We don’t have a lot of openings. That makes it hard for us to meet the affirmative action goals.”

According to the ACLU report, which surveyed about 100 fire and police departments in Southern California between June and September, 1994, San Gabriel ranked among the 15 most segregated fire departments compared to the racial makeup of the cities they serve.

Hyland said Monterey Park hired its first Asian American firefighter from its reserve program, one of the most productive ways many cities integrate largely white departments. Hazama, for instance, got his full-time job after serving in San Gabriel’s reserve program.

But Hyland and San Gabriel Fire Chief Gene Murry agreed that it is difficult to keep minority candidates in reserve programs because larger departments lure them away with better pay when they have openings.

Hyland also said that first-generation Asian Americans “do not see a positive role in becoming a firefighter. “(They) are not applying. They want to be businessmen or doctors.”

Monterey Park Mayor Judy Chu, however, said it is a stereotype to say Asian Americans are not interested in the profession. Chu said she has met with Asian Americans who are frustrated about getting into the field. The fact that the city’s Police Department is 20% Asian American indicates they are interested in civil service jobs, she said, adding that part of the Police Department’s success is that it has a higher turnover rate and its recruitment efforts are more thorough.

Some residents of the San Gabriel Valley communities cited in the ACLU study said more should be done to recruit Asian Americans.

“I’m not saying you have to match the resident ratio,” said Jimmy Chao, a volunteer with Monterey Park’s Police Department. “But I think it’s good to catch up some. (The numbers) are way behind now. “It’s probably better to have 20% to 30%. In case something happens, you don’t need interpreters to tell people to escape. It could save lives.”

When Hazama was finally able to join the San Gabriel Fire Department in August, 1993, he became an important link to the Asian American community.

“About 90% of our calls are medical calls, at least half of them are from Asians,” Hazama said. “A lot of times, Asian people would come to me, even though I don’t speak their language per se, they usually come to me to try to explain what happened.”

Hazama loves his job, even if it means making sacrifices.

“I can probably make twice as much money as an accountant, but I chose to leave all that behind,” said Hazama, 29, a third-generation Japanese American.

After deciding to change careers, Hazama enrolled at Pasadena City College and learned to be a certified paramedic. Then he attended Rio Hondo College’s fire academy and acquired fire rescue and prevention skills.

Because many departments only hire recruits from reserve programs, he applied in Monterey Park and San Gabriel. He was one of the 12 cadets accepted out of about 100 applicants who took written, oral and physical tests necessary to get into the San Gabriel reserve program. Those in the reserve program are essentially firefighters in training.

To prepare for his physical agility tests, the 5-foot, 7-inch, 155-pound former high school and college athlete would run up and down stairs with 25 pounds of water bottles in his backpack.

“I wouldn’t have gotten into the Fire Department if Chief Murry didn’t sponsor me,” Hazama said about his current boss and former instructor at the Pasadena community college.

Murry said he has been teaching fire technology at Pasadena City College for 15 years and looks for minority recruits for his reserve program. The problem, he said, is retention of qualified candidates at smaller departments like his, where there are only 33 staffers and few openings.

Hazama is grateful that a spot finally opened for him.

“I know a handful of Asian Americans who desire to become firefighters who are volunteering,” he said. “There are no openings for them.”