Fire Chief Orders End to Segregation in Department Oakland Fire Chief James H. Burke today ordered an end to what the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called "unlawful practice of segregation f in the Oakland Fire Department," Burke said j he will assign Negro firemen! to vacancies as they occur in companies through out the city. . j . For some 30 years, Negroes entering the department have .been assigned to Engine Com pany No. 22, and more recently to two companies in the hill area DEMANDS MADE "In all that time, there were no complaints' until about a month ago," Biirke said. "ThSn agitators got busy and demands were received, jrtostly from out side of the. department ' Burke said that not more than four or five Negro firemen have requested transfers and all of them came within the past-few weeks. The department now has 27 Negroes on the staff. "We had hoped by grouping these men to develop an esprit de corps and pride in their com pany," Burke said. "This has not developed, but the men appeared to be satisfied and there were no complaints of 'segregation' until recently. . NO DRASTIC CHANGES Burke said he will make no drastic changes in present as signments but will make transfers and new appointments with out regard for color. . Segregation charges came from Mrs. Tarea Hall Pittman, North em California field secretary for NAACP, and the Rev. Edward Stovall, president of the Ala meda unit of the organization. ' Mrs. Pittman said many of the Negro firemen have been op posed to such segregation, and have induced the Labor and In dustry committee of thte , Alameda County NAACP, headed by Earl Swisher and C. L. Dellums, to pledge an "all out fight to eliminate the practice. ' . Reverend Stovall said the matter has , been referred, to ; Atty. Clinton White, chairman of the NAACP legal redress committee, for possible suit against the city.