After years of court battles, the city today swore in its first class of probationary firefighters since 2008.
Mayor Bloomberg told the 318 “probies” that they made up “our most diverse class ever … a class as diverse as the communities you serve.”
Some 42 percent of the class is black, Hispanic or Asian, compared with the 35 percent minority members in the last class in December 2008.
The FDNY had been entangled for years in a legal dispute over whether its hiring has been biased against minorities.
FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano today said the delay in hiring a new group of probies was due to a budget crisis and because “we got ordered by the court to hire in a certain way that we didn’t think was the right way to hire.”
In September, a federal judge approved a new entrance exam, allowing hiring to resume.
Cassano said the FDNY is still below its desired staffing level.
“We’re short almost 800 firefighters,” he said at the Randall’s Island swearing-in ceremony. “But it’s a start.”
The probies were already working for the department as emergency medical technicians and paramedics.