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Deaf Pennsylvania Fire Chief Makes Self Heard - Firehouse.com News
Mark Kite Sr. followed a family tradition when he joined the Yukon Volunteer Fire Company in 1977.
"My grandfather and my father and myself and my brother and now my boy," Kite said, rattling off the family members who all served their community in South Huntingdon.
Kite, who was born nearly deaf, once thought he couldn't be a firefighter.
His grandfather knew better.
"He fought for me," Kite said. "I could do anything."
Kite, 50, has proven just that. On Jan. 5, he took over as chief of the 75-member fire company.
"I told the members it's up to them," Kite said. "Surprise! I won the election."
Kite, who is deaf in his left ear, has a 60 percent hearing loss in his right. A hearing aid helps him with some sounds and his speech. While he uses sign language with other deaf people, he mostly speaks with the hearing world.
"As long as we speak clearly, he's an excellent lip reader," said Noreen Kite, a Yukon firefighter and his former sister-in-law. "We can't talk about him in front of his face because he'll know what we say."
"He has ways of knowing what's going on," said fireman Gary Moore Sr.
For his first few years as a firefighter, Kite took on whatever job was needed. He eventually found that driving the fire trucks was the best fit for him.
He's been driving to fire and accident scenes ever since, getting help from fellow firefighters when new information crackles over the radio.
If a call is canceled, they switch a light on and off to get his attention. Then they use hand gestures to get him to slow down or head back to the station.
At scenes, Kite uses rudimentary sign language to communicate in noisy situations where it's hard for even a hearing person to understand.
Thumbs up means more water. Thumbs down means turn down the pressure.
While he can typically hear what's coming over the radio, Kite's speech is difficult to understand over the equipment.
But that's not a concern.
"He can tell anyone around him to get on the radio and tell them what needs done," Moore said. "In my mind he's qualified. He's been around the fire company for many years and he has the experience."
Neil McDevitt, a deaf firefighter with the Fire Department of Montgomery Township in Montgomery County, said Kite is the first deaf fire chief he has heard of anywhere in the country.
"Personally, I am in awe of his achievement," McDevitt said. "That he was able to accomplish this by working hard, moving through the ranks from lieutenant to assistant chief to chief is a testament to the hard work he's done at Yukon and the trust his fellow firefighters put in him."
McDevitt, who is the program director of the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network, a project to prepare emergency responders and deaf and hard-of-hearing people for disasters, said he knows of about 15 firefighters nationwide who are deaf and communicate primarily through sign language.
McDevitt estimates there are about 50 profoundly deaf firefighters, with many more having lesser levels of hearing loss.
"You'll hear my colleagues tell you that they often rely too much on their hearing and that the ability deaf firefighters have to trust their other senses gives me advantages hearing firefighters don't have," McDevitt said.
Kite has responded to the most calls of any Yukon firefighter for more than 15 years.
He wears two pagers. A standard-issue Minitor pager that all firefighters carry is set to vibrate rather than emit tones. The second, a text pager typically carried by officers, gives him the location of an incident and other details available to 911 operators.
The department hopes to invest in six communication devices so Kite and his line officers can text-message back and forth. A sign language interpreter attends meetings with Kite.
At home, Kite uses a video relay system to communicate with the outside world. He uses a Web cam to communicate in sign language with an operator who translates the conversation to the hearing person on the other end of the call.
A system for the fire hall should arrive next month so Kite can make and take calls from there.
"It's a big difference from 33 years ago," he said. "I had nothing. If there wasn't technology, I would never be a chief."
When he goes to sleep, he hooks up his paging system to a light in his bedroom that flashes and a unit that vibrates his bed to wake him. It's a system he's used since he became a firefighter. He relies on the system because his wife, Barbara, is deaf.
"I get up, and I'm gone," he said.
He's usually the first one at the station.
"I could never figure out how he got here so fast, and then he told us," said Noreen Kite.
"He's usually standing in the door waiting for me," Moore said.
Kite's son, Mark Kite Jr., 24, and another young man with hearing loss, Daniel Shively, have joined the department within the past decade.
Twice a year, Kite brings students to the station from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, where he works as resident supervisor. They wash and wax the trucks and learn about firefighting.
Kite believes his accomplishments can be achieved by others with hearing loss.
"If they figure out how to do, they can do," he said.
Mark Kite Sr. followed a family tradition when he joined the Yukon Volunteer Fire Company in 1977.
"My grandfather and my father and myself and my brother and now my boy," Kite said, rattling off the family members who all served their community in South Huntingdon.
Kite, who was born nearly deaf, once thought he couldn't be a firefighter.
His grandfather knew better.
"He fought for me," Kite said. "I could do anything."
Kite, 50, has proven just that. On Jan. 5, he took over as chief of the 75-member fire company.
"I told the members it's up to them," Kite said. "Surprise! I won the election."
Kite, who is deaf in his left ear, has a 60 percent hearing loss in his right. A hearing aid helps him with some sounds and his speech. While he uses sign language with other deaf people, he mostly speaks with the hearing world.
"As long as we speak clearly, he's an excellent lip reader," said Noreen Kite, a Yukon firefighter and his former sister-in-law. "We can't talk about him in front of his face because he'll know what we say."
"He has ways of knowing what's going on," said fireman Gary Moore Sr.
For his first few years as a firefighter, Kite took on whatever job was needed. He eventually found that driving the fire trucks was the best fit for him.
He's been driving to fire and accident scenes ever since, getting help from fellow firefighters when new information crackles over the radio.
If a call is canceled, they switch a light on and off to get his attention. Then they use hand gestures to get him to slow down or head back to the station.
At scenes, Kite uses rudimentary sign language to communicate in noisy situations where it's hard for even a hearing person to understand.
Thumbs up means more water. Thumbs down means turn down the pressure.
While he can typically hear what's coming over the radio, Kite's speech is difficult to understand over the equipment.
But that's not a concern.
"He can tell anyone around him to get on the radio and tell them what needs done," Moore said. "In my mind he's qualified. He's been around the fire company for many years and he has the experience."
Neil McDevitt, a deaf firefighter with the Fire Department of Montgomery Township in Montgomery County, said Kite is the first deaf fire chief he has heard of anywhere in the country.
"Personally, I am in awe of his achievement," McDevitt said. "That he was able to accomplish this by working hard, moving through the ranks from lieutenant to assistant chief to chief is a testament to the hard work he's done at Yukon and the trust his fellow firefighters put in him."
McDevitt, who is the program director of the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network, a project to prepare emergency responders and deaf and hard-of-hearing people for disasters, said he knows of about 15 firefighters nationwide who are deaf and communicate primarily through sign language.
McDevitt estimates there are about 50 profoundly deaf firefighters, with many more having lesser levels of hearing loss.
"You'll hear my colleagues tell you that they often rely too much on their hearing and that the ability deaf firefighters have to trust their other senses gives me advantages hearing firefighters don't have," McDevitt said.
Kite has responded to the most calls of any Yukon firefighter for more than 15 years.
He wears two pagers. A standard-issue Minitor pager that all firefighters carry is set to vibrate rather than emit tones. The second, a text pager typically carried by officers, gives him the location of an incident and other details available to 911 operators.
The department hopes to invest in six communication devices so Kite and his line officers can text-message back and forth. A sign language interpreter attends meetings with Kite.
At home, Kite uses a video relay system to communicate with the outside world. He uses a Web cam to communicate in sign language with an operator who translates the conversation to the hearing person on the other end of the call.
A system for the fire hall should arrive next month so Kite can make and take calls from there.
"It's a big difference from 33 years ago," he said. "I had nothing. If there wasn't technology, I would never be a chief."
When he goes to sleep, he hooks up his paging system to a light in his bedroom that flashes and a unit that vibrates his bed to wake him. It's a system he's used since he became a firefighter. He relies on the system because his wife, Barbara, is deaf.
"I get up, and I'm gone," he said.
He's usually the first one at the station.
"I could never figure out how he got here so fast, and then he told us," said Noreen Kite.
"He's usually standing in the door waiting for me," Moore said.
Kite's son, Mark Kite Jr., 24, and another young man with hearing loss, Daniel Shively, have joined the department within the past decade.
Twice a year, Kite brings students to the station from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, where he works as resident supervisor. They wash and wax the trucks and learn about firefighting.
Kite believes his accomplishments can be achieved by others with hearing loss.
"If they figure out how to do, they can do," he said.