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Female FDNY recruit fails running test 5 times, graduates anyway

She failed to run one and a half miles in 12 minutes without gear, as required by the academy; she blamed a foot injury

NY Post

NEW YORK — She’s the Teflon probie.

Despite failing a required FDNY running test five times, Wendy Tapia was allowed to graduate from the Fire Academy and become a firefighter. On Dec. 2, she is taking the test for an unprecedented sixth time. Tapia was one of only five women among 285 new firefighters who graduated from the FDNY’s Randall’s Island training academy on May 17.

The class was hailed as the most diverse group of rookies ever, all of them EMTs or paramedics seeking promotion to firefighter. She joined a group of just 35 women among the 11,000 Bravest. But Tapia, 31, has yet to work a shift at her firehouse, Engine No. 316 in East Elmhurst, Queens, where she was assigned May 18.

Full story: Meet the seemingly unfireable female firefighter