Serving the public at large and people in times of crisis requires a support system as diverse as the community it serves and the range of issues it faces. Firefighters are often the first responders on the scene of disasters, and the variety of backgrounds each of them has is an asset. Traditional pathways for becoming a firefighter have changed for the Tumwater Fire Department in an effort to broaden the diversity of applicants and reduce the barriers that may have excluded potential candidates in the past. Tumwater Fire Chief Brian Hurley and Assistant Chief Shawn Crimmins participated in the IDEA team that reviewed those pathways, and they have seen transformations to both the recruitment process and the diversity of their crew.
Meet Tumwater Fire Department Chief Brian Hurley
Chief Brian Hurley is originally from Tenino and a second-generation Tenino High School graduate. Family influence led him to volunteer firefighting.
“My dad and my older brother were both involved with the fire department, so that’s how I got drawn in,” Hurley says. “I actually became an emergency medical technician when I was 18 years old, so I just really got a pretty early start, basic firefighter training. I went to college and got a degree in physics at the University of Puget Sound, and then I started graduate school and completed my Ph.D. I enjoyed that academic world, but after doing it for a few years, I didn’t see that as my career. That’s really what it came down to. But I wanted to finish that, so I did, and then within a year of that, I decided I was going to go to paramedic school.”
Hurley advanced from volunteer to paramedic, then lieutenant and captain before becoming assistant chief just as the pandemic began and then later to chief. Union involvement at both the state and national level gave him a good, behind the scenes view of legislative and union issues. In a job that is always different and always a challenge, he enjoys the camaraderie and feels the community support. Outside of work, Hurley enjoys camping, fishing and skiing.
Meet Tumwater Fire Department Assistant Chief Shawn Crimmins
After graduating from Timberline High School, Assistant Fire Chief Shawn Crimmins started training in a fire protection technology program. His career began with volunteering, through private ambulance service and paramedic work before starting in Tumwater in 2002.
“The thing I love about it is that camaraderie with the crew members,” Crimmins says. “It’s really that team. It’s like being on a sports team and being in a family. Stuff on weekends or going on trips was always with people that you work with. And it still is, but service is also serving the community running on the calls, and the calls that make a difference, the people in cardiac arrest that you get back or fixing somebody that’s having a heart attack. That type of stuff really makes the difference, and now it’s progressed into more.” Crimmins’ goals now surround supporting a team who is doing the same work he did.
Like his father, who was one of the original Lacey Fire Department paramedics and his brother, a Lacey Fire Department battalion chief, Crimmins serves the community. One of his accomplishments was bringing an education program to the City of Tumwater.
“I started off of what Lacey Fire Department was doing at the time, going out to all the middle schools and the high schools and teaching compression-only, hands-only CPR,” Crimmins says. “Shortly after I started, I think the state actually required that before kids graduated, that they have to have some sort of CPR training. We started that around 2016. I’m really proud, and the program is still going great.”
Tumwater IDEA Team Reduced Barriers for Firefighter Applicants
Chief Hurley and Assistant Chief Crimmins have seen changes in the hiring process as part of the Inclusivity, Diversity, Empowerment and Accessibility (IDEA) team. Looking more closely at its hiring process with the goal of reducing barriers, the Tumwater Fire Department established the IDEA team in 2018, which included city leadership staff and the fire department. Not only was the aim at providing equity in access to the hiring process itself but also increasing diversity among the applicants.
Previously, becoming a firefighter had a single access point: a high scoring written test. Preferred applicants were also those with prior training, perhaps as EMTs. Now, high-scoring participants also have the advantage of attending speed interviews, another layer to presenting themselves as viable candidates.
“One of the things that stands out to me,” says Hurley, “is just the really diverse life experience of the people we’re hiring now, not just traditional volunteer firefighters who’ve been out in a rural fire district somewhere looking for a job. We’re hiring people who have had careers before they start in the fire service now, and I think that’s really valuable as they bring that here.”
Firefighters don’t just fight fires. They help people, and the diversity of skills and backgrounds in the fire department strengthen that support. If someone is physically fit and compassionate, they are capable of being a firefighter too.
