page_title: History of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department
section_title: Uniform controversy
hierarchical_section_title: History of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department / 21st century / Ellerbe: Budgetary, maintenance, and personnel problems / Uniform controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: A firefighter with the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department responding to an emergency call outside the L'Enfant Plaza hotel and office building complex in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
context_page_description: The history of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, which began in 1884, has been marked in recent years by various controversies and scandals.
  Known today by a number of acronyms — DC FEMS, FEMS, DCFD, DC Fire, or Fire & EMS — DCFEMS remains the municipal fire department and emergency medical service agency for District of Columbia, providing fire suppression, ambulance service, and hazardous materials containment.
  Between 2000 and 2013, DCFEMS saw four Fire Chiefs: Ronnie Few, Adrian H. Thompson, Dennis L. Rubin, and Kenneth B. Ellerbe. Few's tenure is generally considered to be very troubled, with controversies over hiring and promotions, training, and firefighter grooming, as well as multimillion-dollar equipment failures. Thompson's tenure is widely praised, although there were troubles in the EMS division and continuing controversy over the grooming policy. The death of journalist David Rosenbaum led to widespread changes in the department and the merging of the firefighter and EMS divisions.
  Rubin's tenure is also considered largely successful; it saw an end to the grooming policy controversy.
context_section_description: Ellerbe created a furor in the department in April 2011 when he changed the departmental logo to read "DCFEMS" and not "DCFD". Because firefighters pay for much of their own equipment (which includes shirts, jackets, boots, and coats), firefighters were faced with thousands of dollars in new clothing and equipment purchases (although they had not had a pay increase in five years). The change would have also required expensive changes to logos on vehicles and buildings. (Former Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin estimated in August 2013 that the change cost the city $40,000.) The uproar forced Ellerbe to put the change on hold for 120 days, but his order was not rescinded. Less controversial were his decisions to increase the budget for vehicle replacement and to have firefighters and EMS personnel accompany Metropolitan Police Department patrols of high-crime areas.
  The uniform controversy continued unabated through 2011. In December 2011, Ellerbe changed the logo again (this time to display the flag of the District of Columbia as well as the flag of the United States). It was the fifth uniform change since ordered by Ellerbe change since becoming Fire Chief. Once more, department personnel were forced to throw out much of their clothing and purchase new gear and clothing with the new seal. Ellerbe threatened to discipline any DCFEMS member not wearing the new new logo. In response, DCFEMS personnel began turning their clothing inside out. In late January, Ellerbe issued an order forbidding DCFEMS personnel from wearing any unmarked clothing. Ellerbe asserted that DCFEMS was a paramilitary organization and unmarked clothing was "a risk to homeland security", but the firefighters' union said it was a retaliatory action in response to wearing clothing inside-out and drawing attention to Ellerbe's inconstant uniform policy.
  The logo change caused another controversy in April 2012. The department ordered 1,750 fire-resistive polo shirts at a cost of $70,000 shortly before Ellerbe took office. On April 12, 2012, DCFEMS issued an order to all personnel stating that the shirts would be given to staff even though it bore the old logo. Less than 30 minutes later, this order was rescinded. D.C. City Council members then inquired about how the department was going to use the stored shirts. DCFEMS assistant chiefs said the order was issued in error, and department leaders promised to issue an order concerning the shirts at some point in the future. Compounding the problem, former Fire Chief Rubin claimed that two DCFEMS firefighters were severely burned and two moderately burned in 2012 because the shirts which Ellerbe continued to use were not fire-resistive. Rubin's claims were later more widely reported by national news media. Ellerbe attributed the purchase of the shirt to "trickery" by Rubin, designed to set Ellerbe up for failure.
caption: Shirts such as these were banned by Chief Ellerbe in April 2011, one of five changes to DCFEMS personnel uniforms in 2011 and 2012.
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