By Tanya Eiserer
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2006 The Dallas Morning News
Fighting fires is a grueling job, but a new test recruits must pass to join Dallas Fire-Rescue is being criticized as way too easy.
Experts say the test is not as physically challenging as a standard test used by many departments around the nation. Even an applicant who had previously lost portions of her fingers in a fire was able to pass it.
Several firefighting experts say the new test doesn’t adequately assess an applicant’s ability to meet the job’s demands and probably will result in the hiring of people who physically can’t do the job. They also say portions of the test may not hold up to court scrutiny.
“When you become a firefighter, this is not just something you see on TV,” said Pat Morrison, director of health and safety with the International Association of Fire Fighters. “You’ve got to put all that gear on, put your bottle on, and then you’ve got to perform.”
Since the new test went into use in May, the department’s largest employee association has filed two grievances with the city over how the test was implemented.
Those grievances were set aside, but the test is on the agenda of a city Civil Service Board meeting today in which consultants will make a presentation about the new test.
“It’s a safety issue, because they are going to hire people that are physically incapable of doing the job,” said Capt. Mike Buehler, president of the Dallas Fire Fighters Association, which represents more than 1,000 of Dallas Fire-Rescue’s roughly 1,600 firefighters. “They’re going to end up getting themselves hurt, other firefighters hurt or citizens hurt.”
Fire Chief Eddie Burns said he wants to find out more about the test before drawing any conclusions about whether it meets the department’s needs.
“I’m going to wait and see what the consultants present” at today’s meeting, he said. “I have to look into it a little bit more.”
Concerns over the test place Dallas squarely in the middle of a long-running debate over how fire departments can best attract women into a largely male-dominated profession. Roughly 4 percent of Dallas’ firefighters are women, and city officials would like to see more women in the ranks.
Chris Hornick, the Colorado-based consultant whom Dallas paid $29,000 to develop the test, defended it as an “an excellent test” and said that he didn’t “see a need to make any changes.”
“No test is perfect,” he added.
‘High pass rate’
It’s not just the experts who thought Mr. Hornick’s test was easier.
E-mails obtained by The Dallas Morning News show the Civil Service department staffers who gave the test thought it was far easier than the prior test, which was last revised in 1990.
Randall Carman, a civil service staffer, marveled in an e-mail about “an astonishingly high pass rate” when the new test was given to applicants in May.
About 50 to 67 percent passed the old test, he wrote. Records show 97 percent passed the new test.
He also referenced the woman with missing fingers. She “sustained burns to a significant portion of her body during an explosive household fire,” he wrote. She had failed the old test three times but passed the new one. The recruit - who is among roughly 50 recruits scheduled to start the Dallas training academy on Sept. 20 - declined to be interviewed.
The News had several national authorities on the training of firefighters review a report by Mr. Hornick assessing his new test. The report was written before the test went into use, but after it had received trial runs with veteran firefighters.
The experts said he made several key decisions that had the net effect of making the test less challenging for women. One of those was giving people more time to finish the test.
Mr. Hornick said that he was disappointed that “we didn’t have a higher fail rate” and that perhaps the cutoff time of 13:30 minutes may need to be reviewed in the future.
How do tests compare?
One of the major differences between the new test and the standard test adopted by about 500 firefighting departments around the nation is that the Dallas test does not include a challenge that simulates taking a pike pole, punching it through a ceiling and pulling down, which is something that firefighters must do to look for fire in attic spaces. The event “simulates job duties that occur after the fire ... and is not as critical to performance during emergent conditions,” Mr. Hornick wrote in his report.
Not so, experts say.
“If I can’t knock a hole in the ceiling so I can get a hose line up there, that fire runs the whole length of the ceiling,” Mr. Morrison said. “That’s how we save houses — by cutting off the fire in the quickest way.”
Mr. Hornick also included several elements on the test that are skills, not necessarily physical challenges, the experts said. But testing for skills that could be taught in firefighting school, as opposed to basic physical prerequisites for the job, could lead to legal trouble by potentially violating federal equal employment statutes.
For example, one test involves attaching a hose to a coupling. “If it doesn’t measure or challenge the basic physical requirements of the job, then it doesn’t belong on the test,” said Jill Craig, the Austin Fire Department’s fitness and wellness coordinator.
Mr. Hornick said the coupling requirement tests basic physical dexterity. He said concerns about the test expressed by the experts are a “difference of professional opinion.”