Firestorm in Buffalo

It is a firestorm of controversy in the Buffalo Fire Department. There are claims of racism from 13 Buffalo firefighters, including battalion chief Joe Fahey. "To put it plainly, I was discriminated against because I'm white." said Fahey.

He and the others won a discrimination law suit against the city. They placed high on a state required promotion exam, but all were denied permanent advancement. Fahey, instead, got a provisional or temporary promotion.

Human Resources commissioner Leonard Materese testified in court that the battalion and division chief promotion lists were "killed" or expired because there were not enough African Americans on the lists. His testimony was, "The problem is that if we kept those lists in place and the longer we kept them (the promotion lists) in place, the more white males would be promoted into these positions."

Fahey's attorney says in a weird twist of fate, the new exam that's suppose correct a perceived racial imbalance, actually hurt a minority. An African American firefighter was in line for advancement to captain on the first list, but because it was allowed to expire, he wasn't able to take the city's new exam for the higher rank of battalion chief.

"Ironically what the city did here was prevent an African American from being in a position to take the battalion chief exam."