Doirin-Holder/NY Post Photo
NY Post: An FDNY recruit is getting a third chance to pass the training academy after collecting top firefighter pay for a year in desk jobs, sources told The Post.
Choeurlyne Doirin-Holder, 39 — one of four women among 320 current probies in training — failed midway through a Fire Academy class in 2013, and returned to her former job as an EMT. After entering another class in early 2014, she dropped out because of an injury. But the FDNY kept Doirin-Holder on payroll.
She made $81,376, including overtime, last year — about $26,000 more than the $55,144 she made as an EMT in 2013, records show. Most probies get starting firefighter pay of $39,370. The FDNY did not assign Doirin-Holder to two subsequent academy classes. She worked desk jobs first at headquarters, then on Randalls Island.
“She was qualified as an EMT. She should have been serving the public while waiting for the next probie class, but was paid as a full-time firefighter to do office work and train on the payroll,” a high-ranking source said.
A year ago, a classmate called Doirin-Holder “the most pathetic specimen of physical fitness I’ve ever seen,” saying she failed to run a required 1.5 miles in 12 minutes, stopping to walk, and got winded walking up stairs.
The “Wise Latina” and Judge Nicholas Garaufis
Doirin-Holder gets top firefighter pay, a base $76,488 after five years, because she is one of 282 “priority hires” who Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered must get preference.
Two other female priority hires in Doirin-Holder’s first academy class, now ages 41 and 44, did well, sources said. They passed the Functional Skills Test, or FST, a tough obstacle course of tasks such as climbing six flights of stairs in full gear and dragging dummies.
Doirin-Holder declined to comment, referring questions to the FDNY. “We don’t discuss individuals or individual cases while in the academy,” said spokesman Jim Long.
Doirin-Holder now stands to benefit from the FDNY’s newly watered-down standards, critics said. In a July 7 letter to firefighter union president Steve Cassidy, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro denied that standards have been lowered. But he confirmed that probies no longer have to pass the grueling FST if they do well on academics and practical skills, or individual tasks.
Last May, the FDNY graduated probie Rebecca Wax, 33, the first to fail the FST.
In another change, probies who fail the 1.5 mile run can demonstrate adequate aerobic capacity on a Stairmaster machine, Nigro said.
DCG
