Internal Memo Says DC Fire Trainees Not Ready for Job

Feb. 9, 2018
A D.C. Fire and EMS veteran says the city is leaving new firefighters woefully unprepared for the job.

A D.C. Fire and EMS Department veteran says the city is leaving new firefighters woefully unprepared for the job, with some rookies exiting the academy having never used a fire hydrant.

"I think it's unconscionable," Dabney Hudson, president of the D.C. Firefighters Union Local 36, told NBC4 in response to the memo. "When you shortchange the training, you shortchange everybody."