FDNY aims to recruit more women firefighters

NEW YORK - The FDNY is working to get more women firefighters on the job and, in honor of Women’s History Month, the department held a recruitment event for women at the headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn. 

Current women on the job answered questions from candidates and ran through drills to potentially prepare them for a career in the department.

Laura Kavanagh was the first female commissioner in the department's history.

"We asked a bunch of our male firefighters, ‘How did you think of this?’ and what we found was that someone had talked to them early and someone was bringing them through the motions unofficially," Kavanagh said. 

They recreated that type of mentorship with four different stations of drills. One involved the dummy drag where women dragged a 200-lb dummy to simulate bringing a victim out of a dangerous situation. They also practiced pulling hose lines. 

The commissioner said about 99% of the workforce is made of up men. That’s still the percentage even after the number of women firefighters tripled in the last 10 years, so of the approximately 11,000 uniformed firefighters, 165 are women. 

Being an Asian woman puts one in an even smaller category. Casey Chan is a firefighter at Engine 15 on the Lower East Side and is one of six Asian women firefighters in the department. She was born and raised in Manhattan’s Chinatown. 

"Now I work in a place that is close to my community and to be able to go into an emergency and speak the language and offer the level of comfort to people that look like me, there are no words for it," Chan said. 

At the event, the women are in an environment where they can ask questions directly to a woman on the job and learn the skills needed for the Fire Academy which must be mastered for real-life scenarios. 

Brianna Denis is a 23-year-old Fire Cadet from Brooklyn and becoming a firefighter is her dream.

"It makes me feel like a real New Yorker," Denis said. "I get to serve my community." 

But if a woman doesn't know if she's meant for this job, the department encourages them to come to one of these event.

"Going to events like this, it just shows that there’s other people going through the same thing, and it just makes you realize, ‘Oh, I could do this,’ and I also have other people supporting me and backing me up as well," Denis added. 

The promotional exam is in May, which is what the fire cadets and FDNY EMS members will be taking. The open competitive exam for everyone else will be in the fall.