Harassment Focus of Fire Dept. Probe

At least 14 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department have been disciplined or face sanctions over allegations of troubling behavior toward women and minorities over the last year, a department official said Thursday.

In one case, a rat was placed in the locker of a black firefighter; one firefighter was suspended and two were transferred, said Fire Capt. Andrew Fox, who handles department discipline.

In another incident, six male firefighters allegedly used a dormitory and restroom set aside for a woman firefighter. That allegation is under investigation.

“Having spoken to both sides, I think the women on the department feel the department is backsliding,” said Paula Petrotta, executive director of the city Commission on the Status of Women.

Jay Grodin, president of the Los Angeles Board of Fire Commissioners, praised the department’s quick response, but said he was worried about the nature of the incidents.

“I think the overwhelming number of members of our department harbor no ill will toward other races or sexes,” he said. “Are there some knuckleheads? Certainly there are. I think it’s a small number, but you know what happens -- they hurt everyone else.”

The problems came to light in late March when city officials received an anonymous letter from someone claiming to be a former female firefighter and alleging 10 incidents of harassment. Fox confirmed some of the incidents at a meeting Tuesday of the fire commissioners, a civilian oversight panel.

Pat McOsker, president of the firefighters union, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, said that women occasionally are treated poorly because department managers allow unfit female candidates for the job to pass a tough training regimen in an effort to increase the number of women on the force.

“If a rookie is failing in the drill tower, they should be terminated and not sent to firehouses,” McOsker said.

“Firefighters tend to get along better with one another than people in most walks of life,” he said. “I believe even a good family like ours has an occasional problem; I think we are better than most and we keep on trying to get along.”

Women and minorities were integrated into fire departments in significant numbers in only the last several decades. From 1974 until 2002, the Los Angeles Fire Department operated under a federal consent decree that required half of all new hires to be nonwhites. Today, about 47% of the employees are nonwhite, the department said.

In 1996, a consultant found that “minorities and women felt that white males assume that they are there because of race, color and/or the consent decree and not because they are competent.”

Fox said Thursday that progress has been made.

Mayor James K. Hahn, when asked by reporters about the allegations at his campaign headquarters on Thursday, said he had called for an investigation.

“It’s an outrage, if in fact that’s true,” Hahn said. “I have demanded that a full investigation be made of these incidents, and we’re just not going to tolerate prejudice or harassment at any city workplace, and not at a fire station or anyplace else.”

Several firefighters contacted Thursday would not talk about the allegations and, at the station in Westchester, the person answering the door said they had been told not to comment.

Fox said he noticed in early 2004 an unusual number of complaints that he found disturbing. Several more followed. He declined to say how many complaints had been made, but related some of the allegations:

* Three employees -- including two captains -- were suspended after a black firefighter was fed dog food in a spaghetti dinner. Two sources said it was uncertain if the incident was racially motivated.

* A rookie female firefighter resigned because of a “hostile workplace environment,” Fox said. The case is under investigation.

* The department is also investigating a training incident in which a female firefighter was injured while being supervised by a male officer. Fox said the woman is back at work.

There are 91 women on the force of 3,488 firefighters, the same as in 1995. But more women have moved up in the ranks; there are nine women among the 620 captains today, six more women than in 1995.

Females make up 2.6% of the firefighting force in Los Angeles, compared with almost 5% of the New York City Fire Department and about 6% in Chicago, according to data from each city.

The percentage of blacks is 7% in New York, 12% in Los Angeles and 19.7% in Chicago. Overall, nonwhites are 47.3% of the Los Angeles Fire Department, 32.2% in Chicago and 16.2% in New York City. Sixty-seven captains in Los Angeles are African American.

Arnett Hartsfield, 86, a retired firefighter and historian at the African American Firefighter Museum near downtown, said Thursday that “things are not perfect yet,” but that firefighters have told him life has improved since he was on the force, from 1940 to 1961.

“I was told not to come into the kitchen when white firemen were eating there,” he said.