Facing the fire

Frank Lozada has lived in Elmont for 11 years, and he has been a volunteer firefighter for the Elmont Fire Department’s Belmont Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 for two of those years. But from last May until about two weeks ago, he was banned from the department’s premises.

It all started about a year ago, with an incident involving his sister Beatrice that Lozada knew in his heart just wasn’t right. Beatrice Lozada, who was also a volunteer for Belmont Hook and Ladder, wanted to become a line officer for the department — a department member who is elected by his or her company and is in the chain of command. Candidates for line officer are required to pass a Fire Service Academy class. But when Beatrice attempted to enroll in the class, her brother recounted, she was refused several times by the department.

According to Lozada, department officers told his sister that the class was too dangerous, that she was inexperienced and that she should worry about her responsibilities as a mother instead. (Beatrice has a 3-year-old son.) She was upset, as was her brother. But before taking any action, Beatrice spoke to then-Chief James Prince.

Instead of helping Beatrice determine why department officers were denying her admission to the class, Lozada said, the department encouraged her to transfer to a different company. So she called the Fire Service Academy herself and, after explaining her situation, she was enrolled in the course she needed, and passed it.

She almost immediately regretted it.

“Things changed drastically,” her brother said. She was subjected to verbal abuse, he said, and eventually suspended by the department. Last spring she appealed her suspension in Elmont Fire District court, and won.