There’s a new crop of firefighters joining the Cranston Fire Department. The department will swear in the first female firefighter in city history.
Rebecca Lema is one of 16 new firefighters joining the fire squad in Rhode Island’s third-largest city. Cranston Mayor Allan Fung concedes that hiring a female firefighter was long overdue.
“Yeah it just took a little while, but it certainly was not for lack of effort,” said Mayor Fung, a Republican. “It certainly does break that glass ceiling, and we certainly do have an excellent firefighter in firefighter Lema coming on board to serve the residents of Cranston.”
The department has been marked by a lack of ethnic diversity. Mayor Fung says he’s working to increase minority representation on the fire department.