FDNY.......Is this lady FF a liability?

[Okie4570]

What say ye OSA? I say she needs to just continue on as an EMT and not a FF.

http://nypost.com/2013/11/22/its-no...able-firefighter-should-not-have-an-fdny-job/

Fire this incompetent! Before it’s too late!
The next time you’re trapped in a burning building, thank your lucky stars if the person coming to your rescue is not slow-moving, accident-prone firefighter Wendy Tapia.
Tapia, 31, is the woman who, as The Post’s Susan Edelman reported, was given chance after chance — five in all — to pass a running test that ordinary fire-fighting candidates must master on the first try.
And even after she failed — first claiming a fractured foot, then a respiratory infection (a source told me she complained about bad weather) — Tapia was graduated from the city’s Fire Academy on Randall’s Island. Now her nervous brothers and sisters with the Fire Department of New York are bracing for more.
“A precedent has been set,’’ a management source inside the academy told me. “Now you can graduate without passing.”
“Who’s to say that anyone else following doesn’t have to pass a test?’’
At a time when the FDNY is determined to move past its image as a bastion of white males, firefighters worry that physical wrecks will be welcomed with open arms, provided they’re of the correct gender.
“She’s risk, she’s a liability — not only to herself but to the guys she works with and to the public,’’ one firefighter told me.
On Dec. 2, Tapia, who has yet to work a shift in her Queens firehouse, will attempt to run 1½ miles in 12 minutes or less — for a sixth time.
Meanwhile, the FDNY defends the former emergency medical technician, one of only 35 women on a force that numbers nearly 11,000. But rather than blame the physical limitations faced by the vast majority of females, a Fire Department spokesman blamed Tapia’s failures . . . on a hair-pulling chick fight!
FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon told me that he has heard that another female cadet tattled on Tapia.
“I can only believe this is our own version of a catfight,’’ he said. Yow!
The notion of the FDNY devolving into a clawing den of jealous felines did not sit well with uniformed men and women.
“We’re not saying, ‘Don’t hire women,’ ” said Paul Mannix, deputy chief of Division 6 in The Bronx — who spoke as a representative of Merit Matters, an organization dedicated to true equality.
“It’s like our worst fears are coming to fruition,’’ said Mannix. “The preferential treatment is the norm.’’
Currently, the FDNY is under a court order to recruit minority candidates.
Gribbon said the vast majority of Tapia’s failures occurred during her 18 weeks of training, which, he said, don’t count. Before graduating from the academy in May, she failed another running test. But Tapia immediately went on disability leave for a stress fracture in her foot, and graduated with her class anyway.
On Oct. 31, Tapia again failed the test — running at a personal best of 12 minutes, 23 seconds, still too slow.
That was when the president of the United Women Firefighters, a group of current and retired female smoke-eaters, sent an e-mail to Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano on Tapia’s behalf, revealing that the hapless woman suffered from a respiratory infection, which she had kept secret.
She’s getting yet another chance.
My Fire Academy source contends that Tapia failed the running test at least five times — or more. Usually, she ran the mile and a half at 12 minutes and 42 or 46 seconds. Once, he said, she blamed “inclement weather.’’
The president of the female firefighters’ group, Sarinya Srisakul, contends that Tapia got no special treatment.
“The Fire Department by law accommodates those who have been injured while on duty and this is extended to the training academy,’’ she wrote me in an e-mail. “I am concerned about the number of women and their treatment in the FDNY, but the specific situation you *reported on is not about gender.’’
That’s news.
“You get one chance,’’ a firefighter said. Until now, that is.
Tapia did not respond to several requests for comment.
Will the FDNY rid itself of this problem? Or are we destined to be protected by people incapable of doing the job?
I fear for this city.

 

[rebelracer79]

I don't think anyone on our dept could run a mile and a half in under 12 min

 

[bettingpython]

I don't think anyone on our dept could run a mile and a half in under 12 min

That's an 8 minute per mile or less pace. Not a flat out hard run but that's moving it.

 

[doctorjj]

I'm pretty sure I could run that right now and I haven't ran in months.

 

[twoguns?]

Why dont they just put her in a dept that has a truck, that way ,she could just ride to the fire.??

 

[FullAuto]

Just let her in. She'll file some kind of lawsuit within the first 3 years and just retire off the settlement anyway.

 

[dennishoddy]

"Tapia"
Nuff said. I see Jesse Jackson getting involved in this one.

 

[twoguns?]

"Tapia"
Nuff said. I see Jesse Jackson getting involved in this one.

Or Don King....

 

[Sanford]

Hmm. Does the military still have different weight standards and physical fitness tests for male and female? If so, does it create any problems?

 

[BadgeBunny]

NYFD isn't the only "organization" out there to make exceptions for a certain class of persons. That's all I'm saying ...

Well, except I think it's BS ...