FDNY hits record number of black, Asian, Latino and women recruits for entrance exam

 

FDNY applicants attend a test prep session at FDNY's Brooklyn headquarters on Thursday. Here, firefighters Damien Byfield, Wesley Moore, Aaron Gardner and Daniel Sterling.

FDNY applicants attend a test prep session at FDNY’s Brooklyn headquarters on Thursday. Here, firefighters Damien Byfield, Wesley Moore, Aaron Gardner and Daniel Sterling

After several delays to try and attract more FDNY candidates, the filing for the city’s upcoming firefighter exam has finally closed — with historic gains in the number of African-Americans, Asians, Latinos and women who applied.The FDNY had planned to close filing on April 25 for the highly competitive firefighter entrance exam that will be given in the fall.But in an effort to boost the diversity of candidates, it extended the deadline several times, until declaring June 9 the drop-dead cut-off date.The last-minute push appeared to bear some fruit for the department, which is under the eye of a federal judge as part of its 2014 settlement with black firefighters, who brought a landmark discrimination case against the agency.

By May 8, the FDNY had nearly 52,000 applicants — but decided to delay closing to attract more. A month later, it had collected an additional 20,000 — boosting the finally tally to 72,595 applicants, the FDNY said Thursday.

It was a record-high for recent filings, the agency said, and 20% higher than the 59,874 who applied the last time the test was given, roughly four years ago.

In its final flurry of recruitment, the FDNY notched several other historic achievements:

  •  63% of the applicants are African-American, Latino or Asian, compared to 48% in the last go-round about four years ago.
  • 13% are women, approximately 9,000. That’s up from 6%, or 3,500, from the prior filing period.
  • The FDNY tripled the number of Asian women applying,from 66 four years to go 228 now.
  • 80% of all the women applicants are non-white, the FDNY said.
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