The New York City Fire Department is promoting a black woman to the rank of lieutenant for the first time in 12 years.
The union representing female firefighters says Tracey Lewis will be promoted Wednesday. She’s the second-ever black female firefighter to be promoted to lieutenant in the department’s history.
Lewis has been a firefighter for 17 years, starting off as a cadet. She was an emergency medical technician and later worked on Engine 222 in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn.
There are only nine black women firefighters at the FDNY, and Lewis will be the only officer. There are more than 40 women at the department of nearly 10,400 people.
Ella McNair was the first black woman promoted to rank of lieutenant in 2002.
An FDNY spokesman says three women who are white have been promoted so far this year – two to lieutenant and one to captain. At least four other women who are white have been promoted during the last decade.
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