An EMS veteran with nearly 21 years on the job has become the first black female to attain the rank of deputy chief with the FDNY.
The Daily News reports that Tonya Boyd, who joined the FDNY's Emergency Medical Services while still in college, was promoted to the position of deputy chief on Thursday. Boyd told the Daily News that back then she never imagined her career could reach such heights.
"After hearing about the promotion, I couldn't believe it," she said. "I feel like I've knocked down a door and opened it for a lot of EMTs just starting on this job.
"African-American women will see someone who looks like them as a deputy chief and they will know more is possible -- their careers won't top out at paramedic or even lieutenant," the captain of Station 39 in Brooklyn added.
Boyd, who grew up in Brooklyn and described herself to the Daily News as "fortysomething," had planned to follow her grandmother into nursing, but she needed to make money while in nursing school and a cousin suggested she get an EMT license. After taking classes offered at Brooklyn College, Boyd passed the state exam and on Jan. 27, 1997, she became an official employee of the FDNY.
Her entry into the job came shortly after then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani had merged the city's cash-strapped 911 EMS system with the Fire Department.
New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Boyd's success was due to her efforts.
"Tonya is not only helping to raise the bar for our ability to provide pre-hospital care, she's also demonstrating to young women of all backgrounds the incredible rewarding career they can achieve in the FDNY," Nigro said.
Boyd's promotion marks the first time in more than 150 years that the FDNY will have an African-American woman as a deputy chief. She will be the highest-ranking black woman in the entire department, according to firefighter Regina Wilson, who heads the Vulcan Society -- a fraternal organization of African-American department employees.
"It's a proud moment for the department to have a woman of color reach such a rank and we hope there will be many more to follow," the Brooklyn firefighter told the Daily News.
