Kenneth W. Greene, president of Club Valiants, the black firefighters organization that filed the suit, detailed incidents over the last several years that have heightened racial tensions in the department.

"We had to take action to let them know enough is enough," he said.

In a statement yesterday, the firefighters' union, Local 22, said it does not "condone discrimination in any fashion" and fights "for the rights of all firefighters and paramedics" regardless of race.

Club Valiants charged that union leadership has been taken over by a predominantly white firefighters organization - the Concerned American Fire Fighters Association (CAFFA) - that is dedicated to overturning a 1984 federal consent decree that paved the way to hiring many black firefighters.

The Valiants also noted that none of the 10 officers in Local 22 is black, and the union has just one black employee - a janitor. Union meetings have become so divisive that black members no longer attend, Greene said.

The lawsuit also includes postings from the union's Internet message board that mock blacks and black firefighters.

CAFFA's president, Mike Bresnan, who also is Local 22's recording secretary, said his organization views the consent decree, which mandates at least 12 percent of new hires be African-American, as "antiquated" and "discriminatory."

The Valiants' lawsuit also names CAFFA and the city as defendants.

Fire Commissioner Lloyd M. Ayers, a past president of Club Valiants, said that he expects teamwork from his firefighters despite any racial tension over the consent decree.

"I would say that the goal would be complete harmony, but that's utopia," he said. "When folks start bickering, it's about educating people that the value of diversity is what different people bring to the table."

Ayers said he had not read the Valiants' lawsuit but would monitor the case and "take the appropriate actions."

Greene said he had tried to start a dialogue at union meetings on the consent decree and other racial divisions but was told "to either shut up, sit down, or get out."

At one union meeting, Greene said, a fire chief told him that "if I was unhappy with Local 22, I needed to go to the Sanitation Department, where they don't have a consent decree."

The union's statement did not address any of the specific allegations in the lawsuit, but it said Local 22 acts "without prejudice for the good of the whole" and expects to be vindicated in court.

"We will continue on this path without bias because it is right and because lives depend on it, ours and the public's," the statement said.