NY Daily News – December 11, 2014
by Erin Durkin
City council members turned up the heat Wednesday on the FDNY to hire more women as firefighters. Only 44 of the department’s 10,500 firefighters are women, less than one-half of 1%.
“This is simply unacceptable,” said Queens Democrat Elizabeth Crowley, chairwoman of the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services. “It is time we break down any barriers that still exist for women to become New York City firefighters.”
In San Francisco, 15% of the firefighters are women, and in Seattle, 8%. The national average is 4.5%.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told the committee he’s changed the rules at the Fire Academy to give less weight to physical tests, known as functional skills training. Probationary firefighters will no longer be barred from graduating just for failing those tests.
He said he also will hire a consultant to review the FDNY’s physical training program to assess its impact on women.
But he said the main problem is recruitment: “We have not done a good job in recruiting women who have the physical ability and the desire to be firefighters.”
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