D.C. Fire Captains Complain of Bias

More than a third of the 67 captains in the District's Fire and Emergency Medical Services department filed racial-discrimination complaints in the past week, saying the department gives preferential consideration to less-qualified minorities in its promotions process.

Twenty-four captains, all of whom are white, filed the complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday, saying they were discriminated against during a process by which four new battalion chiefs were named in August.

At the time the promotions were decided, the department had 23 battalion fire chiefs, seven of whom were black. Two of the promotions went to captains who were black; the other two captains rewarded were white.

But those who filed the complaints say that the August promotions