Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9308290059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
\ Deneen Adams has been trying for three years to become Roanoke's first woman firefighter. The department has 245 men.
And it's doubtful Adams will make it this year.
To fill a vacancy in a department that has a minuscule turnover rate, an applicant must rank among the top six after a rigorous series of physical and written exams.
Two hundred seventy applicants tried the test earlier this year, including four women.
Their rankings have been released; Deneen Adams didn't finish among the top six.
Adams declined to reveal where she finished among the 84 applicants who did well enough to be ranked. She was the only woman who earned a ranking. The city doesn't make the rankings public.
Adams said she performed better two years ago than this year.
"It takes a lot of training and commitment to get yourself ready for that day," she said. Twenty-nine years old, married and a mother of three, Adams works out almost daily.
And she maintains that the physical agility test is fair. "I can do what those men can do."
Never having worked as a volunteer firefighter, as have many of the applicants, Adams said the written portion of the test hurt her ranking more than the physical.
"That's just the way it is," she said.
Mayor David Bowers raised the issue of the Fire Department's gender gap in March when he flatly stated that the department ought to find a way to hire women - without diminishing its own ability to save lives or property.
It's a ticklish position for the department's leaders. Because firefighting relies so heavily on physical strength and agility, relaxing test standards to ensure successful women applicants isn't an option, authorities say.
"Anybody that aspires to this job, the same thing is going to be required of them - whether they're male or female," Roanoke Fire Chief Rawleigh Quarles said.
"As a fire trainer, I feel very comfortable with the training requirements in this area," said Dean Paderick, area supervisor for the state Department of Fire Programs. He has been a fire instructor for 15 years and has worked with departments statewide.
The requirements "have been modified over the years to be job-related . . . from real macho-type testing basically to agility testing," he said. "They are relevant to the duties that a firefighter can find him- or herself in in a given situation at any point."
To be considered for a Roanoke firefighter position, a candidate must pass a physical agility test that includes running a mile and a half in less than 12 minutes, 25 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, three pull-ups, walking the length of a 20-foot ladder on the ground carrying a hose, and running up four flights of stairs carrying a hose with an air tank strapped to his or her back.
The test is similar to ones given to applicants for paid positions with the fire departments in Salem and Roanoke County.
The city's biggest challenge may be enticing more women to apply.
The consensus - gleaned from Roanoke Valley fire authorities, city personnel administrators and national fire organization officials - is that there's a place for women, but easing physical requirements isn't the way to get them there.
"We have to get a lot more [women and minorities] applying," said Jim Beatty, an administrator in the city personnel office.
"I think there's a psychological reason," Paderick said. "Women aren't really prepared to go into a situation where they're going to have to spend 24 hours" living with mostly men.
He said more emphasis on an educational type of recruitment is needed - that women need to be informed about what the job truly entails, as opposed to the glamorous myth.
"Tell the women directly how they can do the job and why they can do the job," Paderick suggested.
Quarles said city committees are rethinking the recruitment and hiring process, but haven't yet concluded what steps need to be taken.
In the past year, he said, a representative from the department has begun accompanying city personnel administrators on recruiting trips to military bases, college campuses and churches.
"We try to go to areas where the audience is," he said. The department also may establish a cadet program for high schoolers, he said.
"We are a very diversified society," Beatty said. "As such, we want to make sure that our mix reflects the population of Roanoke.
"If we were looking only for white males, we wouldn't have to recruit at all."
Brenda Berkman, president of Women in Fire Suppression and a New York firefighter, said fire departments in general need to be more aggressive in their campaigns to attract women. They need to direct their efforts to organizations such as the YWCA, girls' and women's clubs and the Girl Scouts.
"Most young girls are not even aware that the fire department is a career option," she said. "It's not sufficient just to post a notice in a civil-service type . . . of publication."
Deneen Adams vowed to try again next year.
"I'm not giving up," said Adams, who works as an inventory clerk at a bottling plant. "I put myself through this every year."
by CNB