Report: Court-ordered class of FDNY trainees flaming out
The dropouts include 23 of 176 paramedics seeking promotion and two of 20 "open competitive" candidates. (FDNY)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The FDNY has a five-alarm fire on its hands and it's anybody's guess whether they can put it out
To that end, the first court-ordered class of FDNY trainees -- the oldest and most diverse in history -- is flaming out, according to a report in the New York Post.
"Halfway through the 18-week Fire Academy course, the dropout rate has hit a sky-high 15 percent and could climb to a third of the 318 who started on July 29," according to insiders.
To date 48 have dropped out, including 23 of 123 court-ordered "priority hires," mainly blacks and Latinos in their 30s and early 40s who took the FDNY entrance exam in 1999 or 2000 but were passed over, the report says.
The dropouts also include 23 of 176 FDNY paramedics seeking promotion and two of 20 "open competitive" candidates.
Meanwhile, four of eight women have also quit. The eight were hailed as the most in an academy class since 1982, when a lawsuit forced the FDNY to bring on the first female firefighters, the report says.
Dropouts have been pushed to resign, rather than face termination, so they can "recycle" and join the next academy class, the paper says.
Traditionally, an FDNY academy class loses about 10 percent over the entire training period. In May, 285 of 318 probies graduated from the academy, with a 10.3 percent dropout rate.
Under orders by Manhattan federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis in March 2012, the FDNY altered the composition of its academy classes, taking many candidates from a list of people who he ruled had been unfairly denied.
The result: a class with 66 percent minorities.
Charging the city with hiring bias led to the court-ordered reforms.
Vulcan Society president John Coombs, according to the report, questioned the FDNY's commitment to helping minorities succeed.
"Some of those instructors are out to break them," Coombs said. "It's psychological warfare."
Paul Mannix, president of Merit Matters, a group of firefighters opposed to "quota" hiring, said trainers should not go easy.
"They're sticking to the standards and not letting people get through who can't do the job, no matter what their color or gender," he told the Post.
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