Oct. 28 marked National First Responders Day, established by Congress in 2017 to celebrate the nation’s emergency personnel, including firefighters, police officers, EMTs, paramedics and dispatchers, for their acts of bravery and service.
Proud Brooklyn native Leah Ray joined the FDNY in 2018 as an EMT and later became an EMS Academy instructor. She also serves in the U.S. Air Force National Guard and is currently on active military duty.
Ray told Brooklyn Paper that she initially wanted to join the NYPD or the U.S. Armed Forces, but at her mother’s urging, she attended an FDNY event in Fort Greene Park years ago. After exploring the department’s equipment, a career with New York City’s firefighters resonated with her.
“I met firefighters, [and] what they told me was, if you can start out in the EMS and then later on, cross over to fire,” said Ray, who passed the FDNY firefighter exam in 2024 and will begin training once her military mission ends.
While the job of a first responder can be stressful, Ray said it is also deeply rewarding.
“It’s a big deal to help somebody live,” she said. “A lot of people think [FDNY EMT] is just a taxi service. But in reality, if we don’t get there to do the life-saving skills, the person wouldn’t be able to live, because you can’t go a long time without oxygen, or getting the medication, or rendering CPR. It’s a big deal to save lives.”
Ray joined the Air Force National Guard in 2020 after a coworker told her about his Army National Guard service. She had considered joining the Army at 18, but family and friends were concerned for her safety.
“I said, ‘If I’m going on dangerous 911 calls, I could join the military, I could do anything.’ So the FDNY gave me the courage to [join the National Guard], because I didn’t have it before,” Ray shared.
Ray applies the discipline she learned in the Air Force to her FDNY work, including arriving extra early for her shifts.
“That’s something you have to do in the military, so I naturally do it at the FDNY. It’s good habits you learn from the military,” she said.
Being in the National Guard has also given Ray, who once described herself as “a bit timid and introverted,” a boost in confidence. Her FDNY colleagues noticed her newfound authority and poise.
“So it kind of gave me the courage to become an [EMS] instructor, and it just gives me that confidence that I know how to command a room and bring attention, and I know how to communicate and articulate myself very well because of the military,” she explained.
When she isn’t saving lives or serving in the military, Ray channels her creativity into music. A Bedford-Stuyvesant native, she has loved writing poems and rapping since she was young but was too shy to share her work. Her FDNY and military experience gave her the confidence to pursue music, which she says motivates others and helps her decompress from her demanding jobs. Her music draws on Afrobeat and Drill styles.
“I get my inspiration from my lovers, my admirers, but also my haters. What I realize is that a lot of times with music, I want people to feel like, ‘Okay, I can relate to this girl,’” she said. “Writing music is kind of like journaling. It’s the same thing; the only difference is that you turn it into a song. So I do feel like it does help with mental health [and] definitely helps me to decompress.”
Ray’s advice to young people is to not to give in to external pressure and to seek out ambitious, high-achieving mentors.
“Sometimes we make decisions based on what other people want, and then later on, we regret it. So my advice would be, it’s okay to wait. It’s okay to be patient, because the creator’s time is perfect, always,” she said. “Before I started working at the FDNY, I started hanging around people from the FDNY. You know, you are who you surround yourself with.”
