{"id":252007,"date":"2026-04-30T03:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T03:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:30:10","slug":"photo-of-miami-dade-fire-recruit-class-raises-diversity-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252007\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo of Miami-Dade Fire recruit class raises diversity concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0April 29, 2026 at 10:37 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 A photo of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue\u2019s newest graduating class is raising questions about diversity within the department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A group of retired firefighters says the image is concerning and is now speaking out about the hiring process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe knew firsthand what the department can and cannot do\u201d said William D.C. Carter, a former Miami-Dade Fire Rescue firefighter. \u201cWe spoke directly to the fire chief and voiced our concerns. The mayor agreed. There was a lot more work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava acknowledged the concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re fully committed, and it\u2019s a very productive conversation that we\u2019re having,\u201d Levine Cava said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The department says Recruit Class 159 was selected from an expiring eligibility list, which significantly limited who could be hired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Officials add that national recruiting challenges, a smaller applicant pool and urgent staffing needs made this class an outlier &#8212; not a reflection of the department\u2019s overall commitment to diversity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWhat came away from this meeting was just an ultra-positive experience &#8212; a more strong and shared vision and partnership in the recruiting process so we can accomplish the goals that both sides wanted to get,\u201d said Charles Francois, a captain with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MDFR tells Local 10 News that a new class is underway and provided a breakdown of the 34 recruits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nine are Black, 20 are Hispanic and five are white. There is no date set for graduation yet.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Magdala Louissaint\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/37f8699f-d0f0-420f-8dfa-.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Magdala Louissaint<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Magdala Louissaint joined WPLG in August 2025 and is thrilled to call South Florida home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0April 29, 2026 at 10:37 PM MIAMI \u2014 A photo of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue\u2019s newest graduating class is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-252007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}