More Than 46,000 Take NYC Firefighter Exam
The turnout was a record number, and Commissioner Daniel credited a recruitment campaign for "drawing interest in a firefighting career from more young men and women than ever before."
New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro announced Nov. 13 that a record number of people, 46,305 in all, took the recent Firefighter exam. For the first time ever, a majority of the candidates are people of color -- 26,018, or 56 percent -- and more women took the test than ever before.
This time, 4,181 women sat for the exam, more than twice as many as the 1,948 women who took the 2012 exam.
The test was giving during September and October at multiple locations. The city used a $10 million firefighter recruitment campaign that included more than 10,200 events during the 18 months prior to the exam; more than 1.7 million emails to applicants and 150,000 phone calls to interested recruits; 14,771 applicants attended an FDNY in-person tutorial session; and 8,600 people downloaded online tutorial material to help them prepare for the exam.
"Our unprecedented recruitment campaign has succeeded in drawing interest in a firefighting career from more young men and women than ever before," said Nigro, "and our goal to expand and further diversify the applicant pool by attracting more women and people of color has also achieved record-breaking success." FDNY is the nation's largest fire department.