The number of African-Americans in the Fire Department has nearly doubled in the past two years. At this rate, by next summer there will be more black firefighters than there have ever been in the history of the FDNY.

Of the 305 firefighters who graduated from the FDNY fire academy in May, 16 percent were black, 23 percent were Hispanic and 3 percent were Asian, officials said. Those numbers are relatively similar to the NYPD’s 1,200-member class, which was 18 percent black, 26 percent Hispanic and 10 percent Asian. The FDNY's class was more than half white, while the NYPD's was 46 percent white.

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