“UNFIREABLE” FEMALE FIREMAN FINALLY QUITS after failing timed running test for the sixth time.
She was assigned to Engine No. 316 in East Elmhurst, Queens, but never worked a shift. After recovering from a foot injury, she went on light duty and continued training for the run. She failed it five times, last on Halloween, clocking 12 minutes 23 seconds.
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, at the behest of United Women Firefighters, a group of active and retired FDNY women, gave Tapia another chance to pass the test on Dec. 2. But on the heels of a Post article on her special treatment, Tapia tried again early, and then threw in the towel.
“It’s really not about her, it’s about preferential treatment,” said Paul Mannix, president of Merit Matters, a firefighter group that opposes hiring quotas. “People are encouraged that she won’t be fighting fires, not because she’s a woman, but because she couldn’t meet the standards.”
Related: Swedish Equalism Endangering Lives. “Since the late 90s, Sweden has mandated equality in firefighting jobs, which has required a severe lowering of physical standards to bring women into the force. According to Dispatch International, a Swedish magazine, female firefighters take more than ten times as long to open reinforced doors, which would leave most people dead if they were trapped in a burning apartment for that long.”