Committee to Hear Plans to Recruit City Firefighters Here in Pasadena

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee (PSC) will review a Fire Department local recruitment plan at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

“The purpose of the local recruitment plan is to offer Pasadena residents the opportunity to become firefighters by providing mentoring, training, and education to those who have a desire to serve and courage to act,” according to a staff report contained in the PSC agenda. 

The program includes three distinct phases to help candidates become eligible for hire: a program in high schools, local community colleges, and a fire intern program.

Pasadena High School will host the firefighter course next spring. Completion of that program will allow potential candidates to advance to the Community College Fire Technology Program, which includes fire science and general education at Pasadena City College, a basic fire academy at Glendale Community College and paramedic training at El Camino College.

The two year fire intern program hosted by the city’s Fire Department requires interns to  volunteer one 24-hour shift every week at the fire station. Interns will be trained using current PFD probationary firefighter standards. Once the program is completed, interns are eligible for hire with the PFD.

The department will conduct outreach camps, town hall meetings, and career days.

Recruiting from the local school district could help the department improve its diversity.  

The Pasadena Fire Department is staffed with 150 firefighters, eight of whom are women. That puts the department at 5 percent women, above the national average of 4 percent for career women firefighters.

In May, city officials voiced concerns about the diversity of the most recent firefighter recruits.

Responding to an email from Pasadena Now, City Manager Steve Mermell said the latest class of recruits is all-male. Nine are white, four are multiracial, one is Hispanic and one is Asian.

The class stems from an expedited process used in February to identify qualified candidates, in partnership with Firefighter Candidate Testing Center (FCTC).

“While this process has enabled us to identify qualified candidates quickly, one area of concern is diversity,” Mermell told Pasadena Now on Monday morning. “Actively encouraging diversity in our workforce is important to the Fire Department, City Manager and City Council. Interim Fire Chief Bryan Frieders, with the assistance of Former Chief Calvin Wells, is currently developing plans that we expect will result in more diversity in our hiring.”

The department made headlines in June when for the first time in the department’s 133-year history, an all-female Pasadena Fire Department crew rode together on Engine 34.