Conflict Between Firemen and Ghetto Dwellers: Environmental and Attitudinal Factors 1

During the past few years urban fire companies have responded to a vastly increased number of false alarms, especially from lower income areas. In a preliminary attempt to understand this phenomenon, two studies were conducted. In the first, several environmental variables, in addition to average neighborhood income, reported harrassments of firemen, and type of alarm box, were correlated with false alarm frequencies for randomly selected alarm boxes in lower income sections of Brooklyn. Results of a step‐wise multiple regression analysis indicated that ( a ) a linear combination of six environmental variables accounts for 73% of the variance in false alarms, ( b ) this relationship is not due simply to differences in average neighborhood income, and ( c ) false alarms are associated geographically with harassments. The results suggested that false alarms should be interpreted as expressions of protest. The second study explored the beliefs and attitudes of ghetto residents and revealed that young nonwhites showed most hostility to the fire department. Although most respondents expressed positive attitudes toward firemen, many believed they do unnecessary damage; and some respondents linked this with racism. Other causes for anger not directly related to the fire department were also mentioned, including the environmental factors emphasized in the first study. The findings raise several questions amenable to social psychological investigation and suggest ways to reduce false alarms, but it seems unlikely that the problem can be solved until deeper racial and class antagonisms are reduced.