February 3rd, 2009
Deaf Man becomes Fire Chief in PA
A week or so ago, I was contacted by Jennifer Reeger, a reporter with the Tribune-Review out of Westmoreland County, PA (south and east of Pittsburgh) with a bit of news that absolutely floored me.
A deaf man was elected Fire Chief of his department. Not house manager, not go-fer-in-charge, or any other position that I’ve personally seen given to deaf people. Mark Kite was elected Fire Chief by his peers at the Yukon Fire Department.
Just to give you an idea of the enormity of this accomplishment: In most jurisdictions, deaf people aren’t even allowed to get their feet in the door even though it’s blatant discrimination. The two deaf gentlemen I wrote about last week from Prince William County are being told that even though they were trained and served with distinction in the department, they cannot re-apply for any position in the county-run department that takes its place.
So to see that in the same week, another deaf man is chosen by his hearing peers to lead the department is a source of pride.
I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting or talking with Chief Kite, but consider this: He’s been active since 1977, rose up through the ranks from Lieutenant to Assistant Chief and now to the title of Chief of the Department. It’s obvious that the men and women who serve under him trust him explicitly and understand the accomodations that he’s put in place.
This does, however, highlight an issue that has been a sore spot with me ever since I got into this field: the NFPA’s standards and a very haphazard implementation of those standards.
FossilMedic at Firegeezer.com has often talked about firefighters who aren’t fit for duty and Chief Billy Goldfeder often spends a lot of his time yelling about how we’re often killing ourselves despite our best efforts not to.
For me, the issue is selective application of the NFPA standards for firefighter fitness. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard departments tell a person with a hearing loss to hit the road but they have no similar thoughts about welcoming chain-smokers who can’t go a minute without hacking up a lung, people who have beer-bottle-eyeglasses, people who can hardly lift themselves from the E-Z-Boy, etc. They’re all technically violations of the exact same NFPA standards that supposedly prohibit deaf people from being firefighters.
Quite simply, the NFPA needs to revise its guidelines to accept shades of grey rather than stark black-and-white choices. If we expect people with hearing losses (or any other disability) to be partners in fire prevention, community safety, etc, we need to give them the same ability to respond to events and contribute meaningfully to the success of the entire effort.
Getting back to Chief Kite: Yukon, PA is a very small and rural community (approx 8,000 people) and the call volumes they have make this a very workable arrangement. It probably would not work in a community like mine with 28,000 people, running over 700 fire calls last year alone, several major state highways running through the town bordered by another county, and at least 7 other mutual aid fire departments.
If you doubt his abilities, consider this: he was elected to the position by his hearing peers. They, just as well as anyone else, know what the NFPA standards are and they, just as well as anyone else, are aware of the dangers of the job. They chose, as a body, to put their faith in Chief Kite with the full understanding of his limitations and accomodations because he has proven himself over and over for the past 32 years.
Stay Low, Stay Dry, and Stay Safe.



