#fire equity

[satireinfo]

LA: The Most Jealous and Marxist City on Earth?

LA: The Most Jealous and Marxist City on Earth? Hollywood Rages Over Private Firefighters When Equality of Outcome Meets a Brushfire LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles, the city where every barista has a screenplay and every billionaire has a bunker, has found yet another reason to spiral into an existential crisis. This time, it’s not about pronouns, oat milk, or whether AI-generated influencers are…

[fuck-u-maga]

[victusinveritas]

Coming soon to an ash and rubble filled neighborhood near you: Building back better, stronger, and for an even higher tax bracket (that will include James Woods, Mel Gibson, and some people you've never heard of but now rightfully despise--not that any of them pay taxes). All of your old neighbors are gone and now you've got techbros, BlackRock, and Ivanhoé Cambridge moving in.

[ireton]

Driving Through the Wild Fires

[eroguron0nsense]

Modern College AU where Rayleigh is Ace's prof (his parents are still dead, the ASL brothers are fostered together) and spends every goddamn day having an internal crisis over the fact that his best friend/first love's son is right there in front of him every time he goes to work, and he knew the second he saw that boy walking into Sociology 310: Diversity of Family and Kinship Structures that he was Roger and Rouge's child, but doesn't know how to talk to him about it or whether he should bring it up at all

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Payton Armstrong at MMFA:

Right-wing media figures are exploiting the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires to further their crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, suggesting the fires are burning out of control because LAFD's chief is an LGBTQ woman who supports DEI initiatives, declaring “DEI = DIE,” and claiming that “it literally leads to death.”

Uncontained wildfires in Los Angeles County have forced thousands to evacuate

Wildfires in Los Angeles have killed at least five and forced tens of thousands to evacuate their homes, and the fires remain largely uncontained. The Los Angeles Times reported that “more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other buildings have burned and at least two people are dead in wildfires burning across L.A. County, making this one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.” [Los Angeles Times, 1/8/25, 1/7/25]

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley, who is the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person to serve in the role, said that “the fire is being fueled by a combination of strong winds and surrounding topography, which is making it extremely challenging for our personnel that are assigned to this incident.” She also said that the fires are “stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits.” [ABC7/KABC, 6/5/24; Los Angeles Times, 1/8/25, 1/8/25]

Right-wing media repeatedly used disasters in 2024 to baselessly attack diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. After a series of equipment malfunctions with Boeing passenger jets, right-wing media rushed to blame the failures on DEI policies. Several commentators also linked the Baltimore bridge collapse to DEI programs, declaring that “DEI equals die,” and Fox News' Jeanine Pirro recently responded to the New Orleans terror attack by calling the police chief “a DEI hire.” [Media Matters, 1/12/24, 1/25/24, 3/8/24, 7/15/24, 3/26/24, 3/30/24, 1/3/25]

Right-wing media figures are using the wildfires in the Los Angeles area to exploit anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ hatred all because the LAFD chief Kristin Crowley is a lesbian woman who backs DEI programs.

The faux outrage over DEI is part of the right-wing war on non-cis white male [conservative] Americans in leadership roles.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Calls On Newsom To Resign; Republicans Blame DEI For Inability To Contain Wildfires

Daily Kos: Delusional right-wing media blames California fires on DEI

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aaron Sibarium

Published: Jan 23, 2023

Connecticut Democrats are working to lower the physical fitness requirements for female firefighters, saying that less onerous standards will make fire departments "more diverse."

A law introduced earlier this month in the Connecticut State Assembly would let women skip the Candidate Physical Ability Test, a timed gauntlet used by fire departments across the country. The test, which only 10 to 15 percent of women pass, requires candidates to complete intense physical tasks while wearing a 50 pound vest. It’s designed to simulate the experience of navigating a fire in heavy gear—and to weed out those unable to do so.

The law, introduced by five Democratic lawmakers, would offer women an alternative test based on "revised physical standards," with the goal of ensuring that "additional female candidates" qualify for firefighter positions, text from the bill states.

But some firefighters, including women, who have climbed the ranks of their departments without workarounds, say the bill will set merit-based hiring ablaze and potentially endanger Connecticut residents. "If you can’t handle a 50 pound vest, you’re not going to be able to rescue a child from a burning building," said Leah DiNapoli, a retired firefighter in New Haven, Conn.

"A citizen in need of rescue doesn’t care if a firefighter is white, black, Hispanic, male, or female," said Frank Ricci, a retired firefighter who served as the president of the New Haven firefighters union. "They care that they can do the job. This attempt to socially engineer public safety positions will only serve to endanger the public."

Unlike in the military, where uniforms and equipment vary by gender, all firefighters wear the same gear, which weighs at least 59 pounds—9 more than the vest used for the physical assessment. That’s not including the weight of ladders, hoses, or other firemen, who must sometimes carry incapacitated colleagues on their shoulders. While a few pieces of protective gear now come tailored for women, most of the essential tools do not.

"They don’t make lighter saws or ladders," DiNapoli said. "When I was there, they didn’t even make female-sized boots."

The law, she added, is "absolutely insane. Either you can do the job or you can’t."

The bill has been referred to the state legislature’s "committee on public safety," which has not yet scheduled hearings on the law. Neither the bill’s sponsors nor Connecticut governor Ned Lamont responded to requests for comment.

Beyond putting lives at risk, critics say the law will exacerbate the suspicion, common among male firefighters, that women simply aren’t up for the job. Fire departments have always been an "old boys club," DiNapoli said, and around 91 percent of firefighters are men. In this testosterone-fueled environment, sex-blind tests often serve as a stopgap against stereotypes, providing an objective assurance of physical competence.

"It’s already tough for women in the fire service, because you constantly have to prove your worth," a retired female firefighter from Chicago said. "How are you going to prove yourself if you don’t take the same test as the men?"

Danny Stratton, a recently retired fire captain from Camden, New Jersey, drew a parallel to affirmative action. "When you lower standards for minorities, people assume they got the job because of the color of their skin," Stratton said. "Lowering standards for women creates the same kind of stereotypes."

Such suspicions are especially dangerous in the fire service, where trust and teamwork can mean the difference between life and death. "The guys I’m working with need to know that I can get them out of a bad situation," DiNapoli said. "If a woman can’t pass the test, men won’t want her on their shift."

This is not the first culture war between firefighters and government officials in Connecticut, where fire stations have been ground zero for diversity-related feuds. In 2003, the New Haven fire department threw out the results of a written exam after none of the African Americans who took it scored high enough for a promotion. Ricci, the former union president, who would have been promoted based on his results, sued the department, arguing that he and other non-black firefighters had been denied professional opportunities because of their race. The Supreme Court agreed, ruling 5-4 that New Haven had violated anti-discrimination law.

Fire departments have nonetheless faced pressure to axe both written and physical tests—especially when women do poorly on them. In 2011, the Chicago Fire Department was hit with a class action lawsuit over its physical abilities test, which was even more difficult than the Candidate Physical Ability Test used in Connecticut and other states.

The complaint argued that Chicago’s test discriminated against women because so few of them could pass it. The department eventually settled, offering jobs to many of the women who were rejected under the old standard.

"A lot of men ridiculed those women," recalled the Chicago firefighter, who had passed the original test.

Though some fire service tests have been struck down on disparate impact grounds, the Candidate Physical Ability Test is not one of them. Developed and validated by the International Association of Firefighters, it has survived multiple discrimination lawsuits, mostly from women, and has received the blessing of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency that enforces civil rights laws in the workplace.

"The idea of the test was to keep politics out of fire service hiring," Stratton said. "Now they’re trying to add politics back in."

==

You can't claim to be "oppressed" when everyone in power is willing to lower standards and sacrifice other people's lives just to "include" you on the team.

[olive-nothere]

This is possibly a very controversial take on here but a lot of y’all need to stop babying Logan Sargeant and understand this is a team sport and for a team to do well they need two reliable drivers

[nando161mando]

What if dozens of vacant, private-equity-owned houses suspiciously burned down. Would insurance companies refuse coverage, resulting in a massive sell off?

[mari-beau]

PSA: Utilities Charge Whatever They Want

So like, if you're paycheck to paycheck, if you're having financial difficulties, pay close fucking attention to your utility bills...

Because look at this bullshit.

Guess what happened in the 61 day billing period for 9/28/2023 statement date?

I moved into my fucking house. And started running my stove/oven and then eventually my furnace.

Guess what wasn't being used in every previous billing date shown here...?

NATURAL GAS. Like literally (in the actual definition of literally) none of it. Almost had my dad going to check if there was a leak in the lines at one point over the summer because nothing was being used. But nope, it's just the gas company charging whatever the fuck they feel like, whether you've used anything or not.

CONCLUSION: Pay attention to your bills because what they do is charge you based on an estimate of what your neighbors are using, not what you actually use. If you're having financial issues, call up your utility company and tell them that you will be calling in a reading every month (because they only send a person out to do an actual reading every other month, or now, every few months with ours, and just charge you whatever they want otherwise, and adjust it later when they do an actual reading... you can see in my bill they owed me a ton of money, because $11.17 is lower than the base charge for even having the gas turned on). And at least in NYS (or my county anyway), you have the right to demand they bill you on your actual usage by calling in a reading yourself because they don't want to pay someone to go out and do it monthly (but you can be damn sure they're going to charge you monthly).

*Also note: the double-billing 61 days on top of already being billed for 35 days of presumable the same time-period, and yet still, completely nonsensical invoice when you click on it. Their numbers come out of their ass.

[gettothedancing]

Dr. Tabia Lee is a longtime educator, pedagogist, and a founding member of Free Black Thought. In 2021, Tabia was hired at DeAnza College in California as the Faculty Director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education. Tabia attempted to reform the toxic campus atmosphere characterized by many faculty and staff members as “too woke.” 

DEI colleagues at DeAnza rejected Tabia’s efforts to promote a “pro-human” approach to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Tabia, a black woman, was called a white supremacist, a racist, and a right-wing operative, among other accusations. 

In June this year, Tabia was fired. She is suing DeAnza College for violating her academic freedom and free speech rights. 

Donate: http://gofundme.com/f/SupportDrLee 

Website: http://www.drtlee.com 

Free Black Thought https://freeblackthought.com/voices/d... 

“A Black DEI Director Canceled by DEI” by Tabia Lee https://compactmag.com/article/a-blac...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Liz Plank at Airplane Mode:

In a plot twist no one saw coming, several prominent conservative figures have decided that the Los Angeles wildfires weren’t fueled by climate change or arson but by—wait for it—DEI. Elon Musk, always the voice of scientific reason, declared that “DEI means people DIE,” because, naturally, the fire department’s focus on inclusion is what sparked the flames, not, you know, the actual fire. Donald Trump chimed in with the claim that California could’ve tapped into imaginary reservoirs of water if Gavin Newsom hadn’t been so focused on preserving the environment and a fish he doesn’t like. Never mind the reality: no urban infrastructure on earth could have handled wildfires of this magnitude, especially ones fueled by hurricane-force winds that grounded helicopters and made water drops impossible. But sure, why resort on facts when you can use absolute lies that serve your political agenda instead! Meanwhile, conservative commentators piled on. Charlie Kirk complained that the government cares more about inclusion than fire safety, as if it is illegal to care about both. Laura Ingraham claimed California’s focus on “DEI [and] illegal immigrants” was the reason it is lacking water. She even blamed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, calling her “another DEI hire of the Biden administration,” because apparently, a white woman would have been able to control the weather.

Of course, fire experts and actual facts disagree. I cannot believe I have to write the following sentence, but there is zero evidence that DEI initiatives have made the Los Angeles fires harder to combat. And the overt racism and sexism of these comments is beyond unhinged. Ironically, the loudest voices decrying wildfire budget cuts to the fire department are the same people whose entire personality revolves around limiting government spending. Take CNN commentator Scott Jennings, who blamed the fires on “Democrats” and supposed budget cuts, conveniently ignoring that Republicans, both in California and nationally, have consistently tried to slash budgets which yes include wildfire prevention funding.

The right-wing faux outrage over LAFD’s lesbian fire chief Kristin Crowley is sour grapes.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency -- whether it's a medical call or a fire call -- that looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease, knowing that somebody might understand their situation better.

"Is she strong enough to do this?" Or, "You couldn't carry my husband out of a fire." Which my response is, he got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.

Translation: "No, I'm absolutely not strong enough to do this, but my feelings about being 'included' supersede your desire to not burn to death."

Ideologues are willing to literally sacrifice you to the god of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

--

[sailoreuterpe]

Incidentally, that particular house caught fire around a year later because we couldn't afford to get our water heater vented properly. So fuck capitalism and poverty as well as inequity and not helping out around the house. Although "Failure is not an option." stayed on that kitchen wall right up until the city demolished the house. I feel like that says something about my family, our situation, or something. I don't know; I'm only a middling poet.