FDNY aces test
Women, minorities surge to take entrance exam
AFTER SEVERAL delays trying to attract more FDNY candidates, the filing for the city’s firefighter exam has finally closed — with historic gains in the number of AfricanAmericans, Asians, Hispanics and women who applied.
The FDNY had planned to close the filing on April 25 for the highly competitive firefighter entrance exam 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 cutoff 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 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: l Sixty-three percent of the applicants are African-American, Hispanic or Asian, compared to 48% in the last go-round about four years ago. l Thirteen percent are women, approximately 9,000. That’s up from 6%, or 3,500, from the prior period. l The FDNY tripled the number of Asian women applying, from 66 four years to go 228. l Eighty percent of the women are not white, the FDNY said.
The FDNY also surpassed a goal it set in 2014 when Mayor de Blasio settled its suit with the Vulcan Society, the association of black firefighters.
The Fire Department wanted its recruitment results to match the number of age-eligible AfricanAmericans living in the city — and surpass that figure by 3%.
As of the latest census, AfricanAmericans aged 17-28 made up 22% of the city’s population. That put the FDNY’s recruitment target at 25%.
Thanks to its extended filing deadline, the FDNY actually closed near 29%, with 20,000 AfricanAmerican applicants. Hispanic candidates jumped from 23% to 27%, or 13,700 to 19,700.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro was “thrilled” with the numbers, he said.
“We’ll continue to encourage and support them to get ready for the test this fall — including offering free prep sessions to everyone,” Nigro said.
Even with multiple extensions, at 66 days this filing period was the shortest in more than a decade. The prior test had a 67-day filing period and the 2007 test was 89 days.