FDNY Fires Instead of Promoting Cadets for Not Becoming EMTs

"You're fired!"

That's the letter numerous FDNY firefighter cadets recently received.

They've spent two years training to become FDNY firefighters, but instead of getting promoted to attend the fire academy -- their life-long dreams -- they were fired.

“It was either become an EMT, or resign. We never signed up to be EMTs," Shamar Greene, one of the fired cadets told NBC 4.

FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker defended his decision to upend the cadets' path  arguing the program was “ill-conceived” under his predecessor. The end of their contracts were not timed with a scheduled Fire Academy class. 

Former Cadet Juan Osorno told a reporter: “I felt disappointed, disappointed totally, because they made a promise to me and to the other guys.” 

He added that his letter said he was fired because he did not clear a medical exam needed to accept the new EMS Trainee title. He failed, he claims, was due to the process being rushed.

“We had two weeks to do a whole medical process that usually takes 3 months,” Greene said.

Former FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh wrote in a statement: "This program has contingencies to prevent exactly this from happening. I worry the commissioner was misled by a small group in the FDNY who never wanted these cadets to succeed. I know the commissioner believes in the goals of the initiative. For the sake of these cadets and the future of the FDNY, I hope he revisits the decision.”