Fire Dept. Probe Finds No Evidence of Sexism : Bias: Accounts of derogatory remarks about female recruits are unsubstantiated, confidential report says. City Council will discuss findings today.

An internal Fire Department investigation of a captain’s allegations that department officials made biased, derogatory remarks about female recruits has concluded that there was no wrongdoing, only misunderstandings and unsubstantiated assertions.

The investigation was ordered by Fire Chief Donald O. Manning in December after Capt. Bassanio Peters testified before a City Council committee that he had heard members of the training staff in 1993 express deep disdain for female recruits, saying that they were unqualified to fight fires.

Some of Peters’ testimony was corroborated by two male firefighters interviewed during the investigation. They reported hearing the chief in charge of the training division and the department’s female sexual harassment counselor remark that women are good only for “consoling (accident) victims” and that “females have no business being on the Fire Department.” Other female firefighters who graduated from the academy told investigators that they heard similar comments made by other training staff members or had cigar smoke blown in their face masks by instructors.

However, according to a copy of the confidential report, the investigators dismissed the allegations made by Peters and the others as unsubstantiated or misinterpreted.

“These (actions) were not discriminatory or sexist in nature,” said the 44-page investigative report, which will be discussed today at a hearing of the council’s Personnel Committee. “Therefore, there were no violations of the department rules or regulations.”

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, a member of the Personnel Committee, said Tuesday that he was bothered by the report’s findings.

“It gives me great concern that they came to such a conclusion,” he said. “I will be very interested in how the chief attempts to convince the committee that the department has done the right thing.”

The two other committee members, council members Jackie Goldberg and Mike Hernandez, were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Fire officials declined to discuss the investigation Tuesday, saying they would reserve comment for today’s hearing.

Peters first complained about the allegedly discriminatory remarks to Manning’s former chief of staff about a month before the academy class ended in June, 1993. The chief of staff, Randy Wallace, who has since retired, told the council’s Personnel Committee in December that there was no investigation initially because Peters made his charges anonymously through an intermediary. However, Wallace later acknowledged that Peters spoke to him personally and identified himself.

Peters’ testimony heightened concerns about whether the Fire Department has discriminated against women and minorities--a criticism first voiced in a blistering city audit released in November. Among other things, the Personnel Department audit concluded that the Fire Academy was the focal point of problems in the department.

At the center of the bias controversy was the 1993 Fire Academy class, in which Peters served as strength and conditioning coach. During that class, training instructors produced a controversial video of female recruits making repeated mistakes during drills as a hedge, the instructors said, against potential sexual harassment claims and lawsuits. The video generated nationwide publicity. It was in that climate that the department agreed to undertake an investigation of statements Peters said he had overheard at the academy.

Among other things, Peters told investigators that he heard the battalion chief who then headed the training division say that “he didn’t want any women on his fire company” and that “women were only good for setting up flare patterns or consoling (accident) victims at incidents.”

Another firefighter interviewed by department investigators said he also heard the battalion chief make the same statements but could not recall exactly when “because there was a couple of different instances where these kinds and types of remarks came up.”

The battalion chief denied making such statements, the report said, and investigators concluded that there was no evidence the remarks were made in a discriminatory or sexist manner.

Peters also alleged that the Fire Department’s female sexual harassment counselor said of female recruits: “I wouldn’t want any of these women coming to my house if it was on fire. I want a big strong man like you showing up.”

Another firefighter told investigators that he heard the counselor make a similar statement. “Females have no business being on the Fire Department,” the firefighter quoted her as saying. “They are all too small to do the job.”

In her interview with investigators, the counselor denied making such derogatory statements but did acknowledge that, “while in a discussion regarding height requirements, that she said that if she ever had a fire she wouldn’t want any little people or munchkins coming to her house,” the report said.

The report found “that because of no independent witnesses other than one person’s word against another’s, this allegation is unsubstantiated.”

On another occasion at the academy, Peters said one of the training captains remarked, “Who told them they could do this job?” as he observed several female recruits having trouble raising a heavy ladder. That comment also was heard by another firefighter, the investigation found, but the captain denied making such a statement.

“If this statement was actually made,” the report concluded, “it does not appear to be a sexist or discriminatory statement in that it cannot be confirmed that it was made because of any recruit’s gender, but only about a group of recruits having difficulty raising ladders.”