Report: Fire instructor gave test questions to firefighters

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A D.C. Fire Department instructor gave test questions to a select group of firefighters seeking a promotion before a final exam, giving them an advantage over competing classmates, according to an inspector general report.

The inspectors could not say why some candidates getting the questions in advance.

But the report suggests the instructor may have wanted to assign more whites and women to the department’s fire investigative unit because the team was composed of black males at the time.

“There was testimony from one fire official that [the official] wanted to have more Caucasians and females assigned to the unit,” the inspector general report said.

All seven firefighters given the questions passed the test and gained assignment to the coveted investigative squad in 2006. Most of those given advanced help were white males.

Fire department officials declined to say whether they remained on the unit.

D.C. Fire & EMS spokesman Alan Etter said the instructor was removed from his teaching duties and moved to an administrative position pending the department’s own review.

After officials learned the questions had been given to a few applicants, a different test was given, Etter said. But the inspector general found the way the test was administered “[gave] some students the advantage over others in the class.”

The instructor was black, sources within the fire department told The Examiner. It was not clear if he acted on his own or had been ordered to give selected students the questions before the test, the report said. An internal fire department probe could not substantiate a finding of racial or sexual discrimination, the report said.

D.C. fire union head Dan Dugan said the arson exam needs to be administered fairly.

“If you have a skewed process, you’re going to get whatever group you’re targeting,” he said. “There needs to be a fair shot for everybody.”

smccabe@dcexaminer.com

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