Rochester Fire Chief John Caufield estimates that 60 percent of the more than 900 people who signed up to take the most recent civil service exam to become Rochester firefighters were from underrepresented groups: women and minorities. It's potentially good news, he says, for a department that has long struggled to increase diversity in its ranks.

The exam was given in January. And of the 905 people who signed up for the test, 733 showed up on exam day.

The Rochester Fire Department, Caufield says, is 82 percent white male, and there are just 10 women on the job.

"It's just not reasonable," he says. "We don't represent the community we work for."

The city hired a consultant to revamp the hiring process. A big change is that you now must live in the City of Rochester in order to take the exam. The RFD spent six weeks strategically recruiting applicants prior to the January exam, Caufield says - an effort that included visiting a dozen churches that have heavy minority participation.

Another change is that the physical agility test has been moved to the end of the process, saving the time and expense of putting hundreds of people through the test. The physical trial will be given to people at the end of their eight-week recruit training.

City Council member Adam McFadden, who has long advocated for more minority participation in public safety jobs, says the physical portion of the test has traditionally been a barrier for women, and the intense recruit training should better prepare people for it.

Recorded interviews of RFD applicants will be scored independently, McFadden says, to eliminate the potential for cronyism or nepotism. Previously, fire department personnel conducted and scored the interviews.

"I don't want people to think we made the exam easier or dumbed it down," McFadden says. "We just did it so it made sense."

People have this image of firefighters as superheroes, Caufield says: axing down doors and climbing up ladders. That is part of the job, he says. But the reality is that about 50 percent of the RFD's calls are for medical emergencies, and only about 5 percent of the work the department does involves fires.

So while physical strength is important, Caufield says, problem-solving ability is a firefighter's most valuable skill. And a diverse workforce increases the RFD's ability to solve the many unique problems that come the department's way every day, he says.