‘BRAVEST’ NEW WORLD: This new class of 318 probationary firefighters at Randalls Island yesterday includes a record number of minorities. (
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The city yesterday swore in its first class of probationary firefighters since 2008 after a bitter court battle over racial-hiring bias — and Mayor Bloomberg hailed the group as “our most diverse . . . ever.”
Forty-two percent of the new “probies” are black, Hispanic or Asian, officials said. That’s up from the 35 percent who were members of minority groups in the previous class five years ago.
Bloomberg told yesterday’s 318 new probies that they were “as diverse as the communities that you serve.” The class is 14 percent black, 24 percent Hispanic and 4 percent Asian. It also includes six women.
The city had been blocked for years from bringing a new training class into the Fire Academy because of a long-running lawsuit alleging that its written entrance exams discriminated against minorities.
Last year, a federal judge finally approved a new entrance exam, allowing hiring to resume.
Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said after the swearing-in ceremony on Randalls Island, “When we had the need for firefighters, we got ordered by the court to hire in a certain way that we didn’t think was the right way to hire.”
This, as well as budget constraints, prevented the department from boosting its numbers, he said.
“We’re [still] short almost 800 firefighters,” he said, “but it’s a start.”
Ideally, the department should have more than 8,200 firefighters, officials said.
The probies — who now begin 18 weeks of training — were already working for the FDNY as emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
‘They’ve been in our department almost, on average, five years,” Cassano said. “So we’re getting people that know the system, know how to operate under emergency conditions, know the department inside and out and have performed admirably.”
During the freeze on a new class of probies, the FDNY had to rely on overtime to meet staffing demands.
“We’ve had a lot of overtime, and it’s certainly not the best way to run a department,” Cassano said.
In September, the city said that about 46 percent of its 9,400 FDNY applicants who aced the new entrance exam were minorities. In the previous test, in 2007, 38 percent passed.
Bloomberg said the increase in diversity in the new class “is a reflection of the administration’s commitment to ensuring that the opportunity to serve our city is open to everyone.”
He also noted that there were just 58 fire-related deaths in the city last year, the lowest number since record-keeping began in 1916.
% of minorities in FDNY “probie’’ classes
2008
35%
2013
42%
24% Hispanic
14% black