As reported by the New York Post the current FDNY fire academy is at the halfway point in their 18-week training class. At the midway point a full 15% of the class has dropped out. A typical FDNY academy class only has a 10% drop out rate.

The academy class that started on July 29 is compromised of many people who did not pass basic entrance exams in previous years. A Federal Judge ordered the FDNY to alter basic entrance requirements to allow persons who were “unfairly denied” a job by low test scores or lack of physical fitness.

Now after 15% have dropped out and large number on the brink of dropping, the judge thinks basic training is “unfairly hard”.

“The FDNY is expecting people to run a mile and a half in 12 minutes. When is the last time a firefighter needed to run that distance? They ride in fire trucks! I can understand that back a hundred years ago the FDNY needed marathon runners. But today we have motor vehicle technology to get to a fire so no need to go running on foot.”

The judge was also very critical of the classes the academy is teaching. Many court ordered probationary firefighters are failing written tests.

“Building construction, thermal dynamics, and hydraulics are all overly difficult topics that I personally doubt any firefighter needs to know about. They are putting fires out, why do they need to know how to build a building? Hot air goes up, I learned that in 1st grade, that is all the thermal dynamics they need. Oh and hydraulics, the science of water flow, we got a water utility department here in NYC that is their job, all the firemen need to know is the water comes out of that hydrant. Do they even need an 18-week academy? I bet they could teach someone to put out a fire in less than 6 weeks.”

The judge has ordered that fitness standards be loosened to ensure everyone in the class now is able to finish. The new time for the mile and half run is 25 minutes. He has also ordered the score for passing written tests be lowered to 51%.

“The FDNY has set their standards too high. Only a very small elite percentage of the population could ever hope to pass that academy. If our tax dollars are going to support them then any tax payer should be able to get a job with them.”

Academy staff was not available for comment at the time of this being published.