Elizabeth Parks is one of five women to graduate and join the FDNY as probationary firefighters — the most women to join the department at the same time since 1982.
(COURTESY FDNY)
“Since I was a little, little girl, I was always dying to be a part of the FDNY,” Parks, 31, told the Daily News.
“I never thought this could actually happen. A lot of hard work and dedication were able to keep me going. I always ran into pretty positive people who always were very motivating. They told me to stick it though. In the end I got in.”
Parks is one of five women who will join nearly 300 probationary firefighters who graduate Wednesday from the department’s fire academy, the most women to join the FDNY at once in more than a generation.
For 18 weeks, Parks, Eniola Brown, Amy Delmore, Tyeisha Pugh and Jennifer Zaino dragged dummies, pulled heavy hoses, climbed ladders and went through countless firefighting drills alongside the men.
The FDNY currently has 58 female firefighters, the largest total the department has ever had.
They will be promoted during a ceremony at Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center on Flatlands Boulevard in East New York. Their promotion brings the FDNY’s total number of female firefighters to 58, the department’s largest total ever.
And although the .5 percent department-wide makeup is also the largest percentage of women ever, the FDNY percentage is still among the lowest when compared to major cities across the country.
In 1982, 41 women were hired by the FDNY through a gender discrimination lawsuit that ushered in New York City’s first women firefighters.
In more recent years, the department has launched an aggressive recruitment campaign aimed at attracting women and people of color.
Lisa Cusimano lines up in a 2015 FDNY graduation class. Although New York City has its record high of women in the department, it trails other major cities across the country.
(KATHY KMONICEK/KATHY KMONICEK)
“I’m starting to see the fruits of the labor.” said Jackie-Michelle Martinez, an 11-year department veteran, who is the department’s women’s outreach coordinator.
After an emergency is over, Martinez, a firefighter at Engine Co. 275 in Jamaica, said she plants the FDNY seeds in the minds of little girls she sees at a scene.
“I wave to them and smile,” said Martinez. “Then I put them on the firetruck, and I put them in the gear. They never see themselves in that position. It’s my job to expose them to this. You see the light bulb come on.”
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