Report from Ground Zero

March 11, 2002 7:38 AM

Report from Ground Zero Brenda Berkman, highest-ranking female FDNY firefighter (25 women, 11,475 men): “[O]ne good thing that has come out of it is that I didn’t have to die to find out how many people care about me. It has really been overwhelming, the love and concern that has been directed to me from women and men from all over the country.” No female firefighters died in the bombing: “We have fathers and sons on that list, brothers on that list.... But no women firefighters, which was an absolute miracle because a huge percentage of us are in the companies that were hit the hardest.”
posted by joeclark (2 comments total)

...an absolute miracle because a huge percentage of us are in the companies that were hit the hardest.

Huge percentage? Total percentage of women is less than 1% (.002 to be exact). While I do not know the distribution of where the women were, it hardly constitutes a miracle that no women firefighters died. In fact, it probably would have been a miracle if any had died.

I don't see the relevance.
posted by eas98 at 9:01 AM on March 11, 2002

Huge percentage of women firefighters stationed in "companies that were hit the hardest." A simple matter of multiplication.
posted by joeclark at 10:04 AM on March 11, 2002