By Matthew Bowers
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Va. — In a city with a population split nearly 50-50 across racial and gender lines, Norfolk Fire-Rescue’s work force can look like a throwback to another era, its firefighters overwhelmingly white men.
That’s not unusual for fire departments around the country. But it’s slowly changing nationally and here, Norfolk department leaders said, under initiatives to diversify the city’s crews.
When the training academy graduated its latest class two weeks ago, five of the 20 new firefighters were minorities. Also in the class were four women, including the first black female firefighter hired by the department in 16 years .
Aside from her — a 5-foot-tall, 43-year-old grandmother — it was a typical class for recent years, said Capt. Jeffrey Logan, the department’s recruiter. The department has been working to attract more minority and female candidates and has avoided investigations into its hiring practices that have hit neighboring Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach in recent years.
“Our goal is to have a department that reflects the diversity of the city,” Logan said. “And it’s important because it establishes us in the community, and it establishes trust in the community, and gives us a perspective on how to handle things in the community. ... They trust us to come in their house.”
This is important, Logan said, because the bulk of the department’s calls are not fires but medical emergencies, in which entering homes and establishing rapport with residents is essential.
Norfolk Fire-Rescue still has a way to go toward its stated goal. Ninety-four percent of its firefighters and officers are men, and 84 percent are white, according to department figures; those percentages are higher for officers. A little more than 49 percent of the city’s population was white in 2007, according to the most recent Census Bureau estimate.
Nationally, about 95 percent of professional firefighters and their supervisors are male, and 82 percent are white, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Diversity or trailblazing wasn’t on the mind of Michelle Morgan when after seven months of training she doubled the number of active black female firefighters in the department, to two. Getting the chance to fight fires and help people was her goal, she said.
“It was never: ‘I was a female.’ It was never: ‘I was a black.’ It was what I was called to do,” said Morgan, who used to work and coach in the Chesapeake schools.
Logan said recruiting women, and particularly black women, to firefighting is tough nationwide.
“I think it’s just a lack of information about the job,” he said.
That’s why Norfolk recruiters go regularly into schools and weekly onto Navy bases to explain what they do, he said, emphasizing the fire-prevention and inspection roles that take more of their time than putting out burning buildings. The department also partners with the Norfolk Technical Center, which offers a basic firefighting program.
The more women such as Morgan who join, the more attractive the job might be to other women, Logan said.
No concessions are made for female candidates in the timed entrance tests, such as dragging hoses or swinging sledgehammers, said Battalion Chief Harry Worley, department spokesman.
But the department’s turnover rate of about 5 percent slows any major demographic change. The low turnover means there are only about 20 openings a year, Logan said. The department receives 1,500 to 2,000 applications for those vacancies, he said.
“The ultimate goal would be for us to mirror the city we are serving,” Worley said.
“We’re not there yet. But we’re trying.”
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