D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin faced questioning by council members Wednesday over statistics that show black members of his department are the subject of 82 percent of all disciplinary actions, while they make up 54 percent of the staff.

The figures come from a 2007 Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department report.

“These statistics are alarmingly high,” council member Yvette Alexander said at a Fire and EMS public oversight hearing, a continuation of a hearing held Oct. 31.

The report shows that from 2005 to Sept. 30, 2007, in disciplinary cases that warranted suspensions lasting longer than 36 hours, blacks outnumbered their white co-workers 207 to 31. Sixty-nine suspensions have occurred this year. Fifty-three of those suspended were black, 13 were white and three were Hispanic.

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The department had 2,072 employees at the time of the report.

Though Rubin agreed that the number of blacks involved in discipline action is “alarmingly high,” he said race was not a factor in submitting a disciplinary case, or subsequent suspension or termination.

“We're blind to race, we're blind to gender, we're blind to religion,” Rubin said.

Rubin was named to head the department in March.