City celebrates the first BFD cadets
New program aims to diversify fire department
Mayor Michelle Wu welcomed the inaugural members of the newly formed Fire Cadet program Friday, three years after a state home rule petition paved the way for its creation.
“Some of you join us from our Boston Fire Teen Academy, some of you are recent graduates, and some of you are coming from established careers in other industries,” Wu said at the pinning ceremony celebrating the class Friday in Dorchester. “But all of you share a calling. A sense of purpose and responsibility to be part of something greater than just your own self, to serve our city and our communities.”
The 32-member class, which represents 10 Boston neighborhoods, will complete a two-year program and become eligible for admission into the Boston Fire Academy.
The launch of the program follows similar training programs created by the Boston Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police.
The department needed the three years following the passage of a bill, sponsored by state Representative Chynah Tyler, to plan and budget for the program, said Michael Gaskins, diversity recruitment officer for the Boston Fire Department.
The program, modeled after the city’s Police Cadet program, is designed to prepare young Boston residents for firefighting service and diversify the Boston Fire Department, which is dominated by white men.
“Programs like this can be a national model to address some of the underrepresented communities that we might not find in our applicant pool from those that have served” in the military, said Gaskins.
Gaskins said the civil service test aspiring firefighters take to enter the academy often prioritize already overrepresented groups such as veterans, which limits the diversity of the applicant pool in race, age, and language ability.
“For the cadets, this gives us a totally different track,” Gaskins said.
Sixty-nine percent of the inaugural cadet class belong to communities underrepresented in the Boston Fire Department, according to the city’s website. Seventeen are people of color and nine are women.
The number of women in the class is high compared to statewide numbers, which indicate that about one in 26 enter the service, according to Gaskins.
“We can call them unicorns, if you will,” Gaskins said. “When I first arrived in 2022, ... out of the 90 that were in the recruit class, we had one woman.”
Fire Commissioner Paul Burke lauded the diversity.
“We look forward to turning this diverse group of women and men into Boston Firefighters,” said Burke in a posting on the city’s website.
Additionally, cadet eligibility requires at least three years of residency in Boston, as the department aims to build a class with “cultural competency that comes from that neighborhood upbringing,” Gaskins said.
Over the next two years, the cadets, who range from 18 to 25 years old, will train extensively with the fire department, getting hands-on experience and familiarizing themselves with community residents and firefighting tools.
Wu commended the group for speaking languages ranging from Spanish to Haitian Creole to American Sign Language. Gaskins said language skills are “desperately needed within the department.”
“The power being the first lies in ensuring that you’re not the last,” Wu said. “That you will be there as supports and mentors for those who are going to follow in your footsteps.”