Salt Lake City’s fire department is 91 percent white. So the city held a job fair to attract minorities and refugees to government jobs.

Musa Abdullah has fought fires and would like to make a career of it.

“To be a firefighter is to help people,” said Abdullah, a 24-year-old immigrant from Sudan who has lived in Salt Lake City for the last five years.

The process to be a Salt Lake City firefighter can take years, so in the meantime, Abdullah was one of dozens of people who showed up to a job fair Saturday at the Horizonte Instruction and Training Center.

The event, organized by Salt Lake City, allowed job seekers to find out about employment opportunities from several city agencies, including the police and fire departments, 911 dispatch, parks and public lands, and waste and recycling management.

“For us, it’s about outreach,” said Karl Lieb, chief of the Salt Lake City Fire Department. “The challenge for us is to educate people to what this job is about, to let them know this is what we do.”

Abdullah, in a gray suit and purple shirt, walked from one folding table to another around the Horizonte cafeteria, picking up flyers about job postings for city government. Most were entry-level jobs, either seasonal or part-time.

Karen Mason, an onboarding specialist with the city’s human resources department, played up the permanence of a government job.

“The city’s always going to be here,” Mason told Abdullah, “so you don’t have to worry about it shutting down.”

When Abdullah got to the fire department’s table, Capt. Tony Stowe and the department’s recruitment coordinator, Darcy Egbert, greeted him like a friend.

Abdullah took the written firefighters’ test in early 2018, after attending the department’s test-preparation events. He scored 85 percent, a few frustrating points short of the 90 percent threshold for acceptance. Abdullah aims to try again in early 2020, the next time the city administers the test.

Egbert encouraged Abdullah by pointing out that some firefighters have gone through the testing process — a written test, an interview, and a physical exam — three or even five times before passing.

In 2016, Salt Lake City’s fire department dropped its U.S. citizenship requirement for hiring. Applicants must have a residency ID, Lieb said.

The city has worked to recruit, Egbert said, “in areas where we haven’t made the effort.” That includes minority and refugee communities.

“We really want everybody to know we’re accessible,” Stowe said.

The statistics show the city’s public safety agencies have struggled to hire a diverse workforce. Last year, 87 percent of the police department’s staff and 91 percent of the fire department’s employees were white. Latinos represented 7 percent of the police department and 5 percent of the fire department, with smaller percentages of African-American, American Indian, Asian and Pacific Islander employees.

After chatting with the firefighters, Abdullah moved on to the police department’s table, where an officer ran down the requirements for a job there. The Salt Lake City police require applicants to be U.S. citizens, have a high school diploma or GED, and pass a rigorous written test and a physical exam that includes 14 push-ups without stopping and 23 sit-ups in a minute.

After then talking to recruiters from Salt Lake City’s 911 and the city’s waste and recycling management, Abdullah milled about for awhile, talking more with the firefighters. He got a hug from Mayor Jackie Biskupski, who popped in to check on the event.

“We’re trying to get people matched up with employment opportunities,” Biskupski said. “It’s an opportunity to let the people know Salt Lake City Corporation is a great place to work.”

Abdullah — who has five sisters and two brothers living in Sudan — now works as a volunteer with a local refugee center, driving people to the store and doing other errands. Last summer, he battled wildfires as a member of Alta Hotshots, a firefighting crew based in Draper. He displays an Alta Hotshots sticker on his cellphone case, which is slightly melted on one edge from a fire.

Serving the city as a firefighter, Abdullah said, would let him be a bridge between refugees like himself and the rest of the community. “You’ve got to know us, we’ve got to know you,” he said.