Readers React: Firefighters need the right stuff, not the right gender or ethnicity

To the editor: Selecting the right people to do a job should not be based on the gender or racial makeup of a population but on how well the candidates can do the work. If you compare, for example, the number of females who meet the strength requirements for the firefighter job, it will explain why the majority of firefighters are men. (“Why the LAFD is still largely white and male despite diversity efforts,” Nov. 17)

Please do not use the silly argument that 99.9% of the time the strength requirements of the job are not required. It may only be .01% of the time that a firefighter has to carry a 150-pound person out of a burning building, but a firefighter should be able to do this.

Edward Bond, Granada Hills

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To the editor: Really, in 2015, in a huge city that is half Latino, the Los Angeles Fire Department can’t find 200 bright, educated, strong, hardworking Latinos who want to one day make a six-figure salary? Really?

Has it tried recruiting college-educated, aspiring minority athletes who could not play professionally? They don’t want to earn six figures? There are definitely bright, strong women who would love to earn six figures.

Give me the job, with just paid expenses, and in two months I will find you the qualified candidates.

Cheryl Younger, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I can’t speak for Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has overhauled the LAFD’s hiring process, but if my house is on fire, I’m not going to turn away a fire engine full of firefighters because they aren’t racially diverse.

I want firefighters who want to be there and are qualified to do an extremely difficult job, whatever color or gender they may be.

Kelley Foreman, Northridge

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