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The International Association of Black Professional Firefighters (IABPFF), founded in 1970, is a fraternal organization of black firefighters. It represents more than 8000 fire service personnel throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, organized in 180 chapters. [1]
In September 1969, black and minority fire fighters of all ranks from municipalities across the United States met in New York City for two days of discussion on various problems and injustices affecting African-American firefighters: the recruitment of black youth into the fire service, firefighters-community relations with special emphasis on relations with the residents of neighborhoods inhabited by blacks, inter-group relations and practices in fire departments, and the need to improve fire prevention programs in the areas of greatest need. The meeting resulted in the founding of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters.
In October 1970, the first convention of Black Professional Fire Fighters was held in Hartford, Connecticut. [2] The IABPFF is currently led by President Carrie Edwards-Clemons.
Southwest Region [3]
Northeast Region [4] Vulcan Society, The Valiants, Vulcan Blazers, Phoenix Society, Boston Society of Vulcans
Southeast Region [5] Brothers and Sisters Combined [6]
Central Region [3] The Stentorians, Black Firefighters Association
The IABPFF Medal of Honor was established to honor those members whom through their contributions in leadership and activism, mentorship and dedication to the ideals of the IABPFF, is both constant and unyielding. In 2017, IABPFF conferred its Medal of Honor Award to retired NYFD Lt. Ormond Smith. He served the Vulcan Society and the IABPFF in service to these ideals. [7]
The IABPFF Medal of Valor was established to recognize acts upholding the best qualities and aspirations of the professional fire and rescue service.[ citation needed ] Medal of Valor recipients include:
The IABPFF also celebrates and recognizes our leadership as an organization who had the courage and vision to “speak truth to power” over the many decades we “kept the fire burning for Justice” to quote Capt. David J. Floyd, the IABPFF founding president.
In cities where blacks came to achieve an absolute political majority – such as Baltimore, Newark, Gary, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. – threats of lawsuits forced the integration of those fire departments. Integration and black and minority hiring in those cities while stormy, went ahead. The IABFF played a role in the lawsuits that dotted the landscape in the 70's and 80's.[ promotion? ][ citation needed ]
Once chapters were organized around the country, legal avenues were opened to force diversity. In other cities integration of the fire services were not the case, notably Boston('75), Birmingham('81), Miami('77), [15] Memphis('74, '80), San Francisco('70), Chicago, Omaha, Austin, [16] St. Louis ('75), [3] Hartford [17] and Los Angeles('74); where consent decrees forced ‘quotas’ [18] to be imposed in hiring firefighters to mostly white departments due to a lack of political capital to properly integrate them. This political isolation of blacks during the era of fiscal austerity in the 1970s was a direct cause of the elimination of the gains made in fire service up until then by blacks and minorities. As the consent decrees were implemented, fiscal cutbacks forced those last hired to be fired in deference to seniority rules, prompting a new round of lawsuits. Boston suffered from the imposition of a state tax law derived from ‘Proposition 2½’ [19] which caused the elimination of some 200 black firefighters until the layoffs were reversed by funds directly acquired by the city to re-hire them. NYC used the 1975 fiscal crisis to not proceed with court-ordered hiring of black firefighters as a result of a ruling in a 1973 lawsuit [20] filed by the Vulcan Society. Around the country various ploys to prevent blacks from being hired as firefighters were disguised as fiscal austerity to provide cover for politicians who had no allegiance to nor fear of voter backlash from the minority communities which disproportionately suffered from firehouse closings. For example, black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods in NYC saw 27 firehouses closed in the early 1970s, resulting in an epidemic of building fires, leading to some areas within those neighborhoods losing 80% of the housing stock, which in turn led to overcrowding in adjacent areas followed by a diffusion of the chaos and more fires and loss of housing in those areas. [21] This chain reaction saw social collapse and vast areas turned into urban deserts wholly lacking a normal community life. Despite the havoc the cuts had on those communities, they were never rescinded. Only minorities with no political representation were affected, effectively segregated and politically marginalized, preventing them from finding allies to oppose the reductions in service to their districts. If this seems a relic of past discrimination fights, the Aughts proved this not to be the case. [22] With nepotism an issue, the makeup of many firehouses still remains a profession passed from father to sons, [23] barring lawsuits to force integration of minorities and women they continue to remain the same as they were in the 1970s era of consent decrees.
FDNY - NYC Under court-ordered monitoring [24] [25] Currently hiring from a preferred list condensed from those minorities who passed all tests relevant to hiring and were on the 1999, 2002, and 2007 lists.
AFD - Austin, Tx Consent decree in final stage litigation [16] [26] Plaintiffs AAAFA decries The Department of Justice in the implementation of the decree, and the most recent rushed resolution by the city council, which is allowing local 975(AFA) to be involved in the diversity hiring process. The AAAFA being the party involved in bringing the lawsuit, argued that the Federal consent decree trumps and overrides any state code so that the AFA (Local 975) request to enjoin the discussions is deleterious to the process. To be clear, they stated before the Austin City Council, the facts are that the state does not allow Local 975 to be involved in the implementation of the consent decree, and we, the AAAFA are saying they do not need to be involved with it as well. Finally, the best AFD hiring process that had the most diversity was in 2005 (which Local 975 helped to cancel), not 2012 or 2013. The AAAFA organization's mission is the serve both Firefighters, our department, and the Austin community. [27] In opposition, members of the Austin Firefighters Association say they are ready to work with city leaders. “We’re the employee group, and nobody knows how to hire better firefighters than the employees themselves,” said AFA President Bob Nicks in response to the criticism. However, the judge ruled in favor of the AAAFA. [28]
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Responses to Fire Suppression Incidents,Hazardous Materials/Chemical,Biological,Radiological,Nuclear and High Yield Explosives events,Special Operations/Technical Rescue Incidents and Emergency Medical Services Incidents around the entire city. The FDNY also provides support services including funeral details for fallen firefighters,Educational and prevention services and so on and so forth. The FDNY is equipped with a wide variety of general-purpose and specialized fire apparatus and vehicles to serve its varied missions.
Brenda Denise Cowan was Lexington, Kentucky's first black female firefighter. According to Women in the Fire Service, Lieutenant Cowan is the first black female career firefighter ever to die in the line of duty. She had served with the Lexington Fire Department for twelve years. Cowan was the sister of Fred Cowan, a member of University of Kentucky's 1978 national championship basketball team.
Nicholas George Garaufis is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department (JFRD) provides fire protection and emergency medical services for Jacksonville, Florida, as well as all unincorporated areas of Duval County.
New York City Fire Department Rescue Company 1, also known as Rescue 1, is one of five special operations rescue companies of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) that responds to rescue operations that require specialized equipment and training. It was organized on March 8, 1915.
The Phoenix Society is a black fraternal organization of firefighters in the Hartford (Connecticut) Fire Department. The organization was founded in 1965.
Brenda Berkman is a pioneering female firefighter. She was the sole named class plaintiff in the federal sex discrimination lawsuit that opened the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) to women firefighters. After she won the lawsuit in 1982, she and 40 other women became FDNY firefighters.
The Vulcan Society, founded in 1940, is a fraternal organization of black firefighters in New York City.
Founded in 1969, the Boston Society of Vulcans of Massachusetts is a community-based, non-profit organization of Black and Latino firefighters in Boston. Their mission is to encourage urban Bostonians to pursue public safety careers. They also promote public safety and fire prevention through education programs and various other resources. The Boston Society of Vulcans is a member of the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters, an association formed in 1969 in New York City to address the larger issue of racial discrimination faced by African-American firefighters nationwide. The Boston Society of Vulcans descended from the Vulcan Society of the FDNY, a black fraternal order of firefighters organized in 1940 to promote diversity and aid minority recruitment to the ranks of civil servants.
The Stentorians are a fraternal organization of African American firefighters, based in Los Angeles, California, and founded in 1954.
The San Francisco Black Firefighters Association (SFBFA) was founded in 1972.
Arthur "Smokestack" Hardy was a volunteer fire fighter, photographer, black fire historian and collector of fire memorabilia. He was the first African-American firefighter in Baltimore, Maryland. There is a museum of his collection of fire related artifacts in West Baltimore curated by Guy Cephas, a fellow Retired Auxiliary firefighter. Baltimore has named one of their fire stations after him.
Wesley Augustus Williams was the third African-American to join the New York Fire Department and the first to be promoted to an officer. He was one of the founders of the Vulcan Society in 1940.
The Vulcan Blazers, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is an African-American fraternal organization representing more than 300 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics. They are an advocacy organization which has been assisting African American Fire Fighters since 1970. Having formed an outreach with members of the Fire Fighting profession statewide, the membership is over 300 and still growing.
The Valiants of Philadelphia is a fraternal society of Black and Latino firefighters in Pennsylvania, with the mission of encouraging urban youth to pursue public safety careers and promoting public safety and fire prevention through education.
Black Sunday has been used to describe January 23, 2005, when three firefighters of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) died in two fires: two at a tenement fire in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, with four others being seriously injured, and one at a house fire in the East New York section of Brooklyn. It was the deadliest day for the FDNY since the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, and the first time since 1918 that firefighters had died at two separate incidents on the same day.
The Brooklyn Fire Department (BFD) was a professional fire department that provided fire protection and rescue services to the city of Brooklyn, New York, within modern-day New York City, from 1869 to 1898. The Brooklyn Fire Department, a paid firefighting force, replaced a 3,000-person volunteer fire department that was poorly equipped to serve Brooklyn's growing population.
A Special operations firefighter, also known as Fire Service Special Operations, is a specialist firefighter who has been specially trained to execute tasks other than standard firefighting operations. The National Fire Protection Association's Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments defines special operations as "Those emergency incidents to which the fire department responds that require specific and advanced training and specialized tools and equipment". The NFPA 1710 further defined special operations as "Special operations include water rescue, extrication, hazardous materials, confined space entry, highangle rescue, aircraft rescue and fire fighting, and other operations requiring specialized training".
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