Fire officials said it would not be difficult to hire replacements from the several thousand candidates who have already passed the firefighter test.
Fire officials said they had hired 1,200 new people and planned to hire more, from the several thousand candidates who had passed the firefighter test.
City officials have said that they have made noticeable strides in diversifying the Fire Department, pointing out that new outreach efforts have increased the number of minority applicants who took and passed the firefighter exams.
The government's own evidence highlights that a significant number of firefighters will be unfit to deal with these emergencies, due to natural ageing from the age of 55, where if we cannot pass the mandatory firefighter fitness test we face dismissal, or a significantly reduced pension.
The volunteers do not have to pass the exams given to prospective New York City firefighters, although some of the volunteers are also city firefighters.
"When they come to school, the 40-year-old firefighter has to pass the same hands-on training that 18-year-olds have to do," he said.
Coincidentally, barely a month ago, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court narrowly overruled that holding, saying that disparate impact was not alone sufficient to strike down the test – and that it was "racism" against the white firefighters who did pass the test.
He noted that prospective firefighters of all ages had to pass the same physical before training.
Gary Rainey, president of the Florida Professional Firefighters, said there was not enough Senate support to pass the bill in an up-or-down vote.
MPs, the public and firefighters were completely misled and given a false guarantee in order to pass the legislation.
