New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing fire suppression services, hazardous materials response, emergency medical services, and technical rescue for the entire city.
The New York City Fire Department is the largest municipal fire department in North America and the Western Hemisphere, as well as the second largest in the world after the Tokyo Fire Department. The FDNY employs over 11,000 uniformed firefighting employees, 4,500 uniformed EMTs, paramedics, and EMS employees, and 2,000 civilian employees. Its regulations are compiled in title 3 of the New York City Rules. The FDNY's motto is "New York's Bravest" for fire, and "New York's Best" for EMS. The FDNY serves more than 8.5 million residents within a area.
The FDNY headquarters is located at 9 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn, and the FDNY Fire Academy is located on Randalls Island. There are 3 International Association of Fire Fighters Locals: The Uniformed Firefighters Association is represented by IAFF Local 94. The Uniformed Fire Officers Association is represented by IAFF Local 854 and the Uniformed Fire Alarm Dispatchers Benevolent Association is represented by IAFF Local 4959. EMS is represented by DC 37 Locals 2507 for EMTs and paramedics and Local 3621 for officers.
Organization
Like most fire departments of major cities in the United States, the New York City Fire Department is organized in a paramilitary fashion, and in many cases, echoes the structure of the police department. The department's executive staff is divided into two areas that include a civilian Fire Commissioner who serves as the head of the department and a Chief of Department who serves as the operational leader. The current NYC Fire Commissioner is Lillian Bonsignore, who succeeded Mark Guerra in January 2026. The executive staff includes several civilian deputy commissioners who are responsible for the many administrative bureaus within the department, along with the Chief of Department, Chief of Fire Operations, Chief of EMS, Chief Fire Marshal, Chief of Training and other staff chiefs. Staff chiefs include the seven citywide tour commanders, the Chief of Fire Prevention, and the Chief of Safety.Operationally and geographically, the department is organized into five borough commands for each of the five Boroughs of New York City. Each borough command has a borough commander. For Manhattan, this commander is an Assistant Chief, whereas each of the other four borough commanders are deputy assistant chiefs. Within those five borough commands exists nine firefighting divisions, each of which are headed by a deputy chief, who also has several deputy chiefs to help run the division when the deputy chief is not on duty. Within each division are four to seven battalions, each led by a battalion chief. The lead battalion chief for the battalion is the battalion commander and the others are battalion chiefs. Each battalion consists of three to eight firehouses and consists of approximately 180–200 firefighters and officers. Each firehouse consists of one to three fire companies. Each fire company is led by a captain, who commands three lieutenants and twelve to twenty firefighters. Tours can be either night tours or day tours. Under a swapping system called "mutuals", most firefighters combine tours and work a 24-hour shift, followed by three days off. In one tour or shift, each company is commanded by an officer and is made up of four to five firefighters for engine companies, five firefighters for ladder companies, rescue companies, or squad companies, and six firefighters for the hazardous materials company.
The FDNY faces highly multifaceted firefighting challenges in many ways unique to New York. In addition to responding to building types that range from wood-frame single family homes to high-rise structures, there are many secluded bridges and tunnels, the New York City Subway system, as well as large parks and wooded areas that can give rise to brush fires.
The FDNY also responds to many other incidents such as auto accidents, auto extrications, gas emergencies, entrapments, construction accidents, high-angle rescues, trench rescues, confined space incidents, explosions, transit incidents, unstable buildings or collapses, hazardous materials incidents, medical emergencies and many more.
History
1648–1865
The origins of the New York City Fire Department go back to 1648 when the first fire ordinance was adopted in what was then the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. Peter Stuyvesant, within one year of his arrival, appointed four fire wardens to wooden chimneys of thatched-roofed wooden houses, charging a penalty to owners whose chimneys were improperly swept. The first four fire wardens were Martin Krieger, Thomas Hall, Adrian Wyser, and George Woolsey.Hooks, ladders and buckets were financed through the collection of fines for dirty chimneys, and a fire watch was established, consisting of eight wardens which were drawn from the male population. An organisation known as the prowlers but given the nickname the rattle watch patrolled the streets with buckets, ladders and hooks from nine in the evening until dawn looking for fires. Leather shoe buckets, 250 in all, were manufactured by local Dutch shoemakers in 1658, and these bucket brigades are regarded as the beginning of the New York Fire Department.
In 1664, New Amsterdam became an English settlement and was renamed New York. The first New York fire brigade entered service in 1731 equipped with two hand-drawn pumpers which had been transported from London, England. These two pumpers formed Engine Company 1 and Engine Company 2. These were the first fire engines to be used in the American colonies, and all able-bodied citizens were required to respond to a fire alarm and to participate in the extinguishing under the supervision of the Aldermen.
The city's first firehouse was built in 1736 in front of City Hall on Broad Street. A year later, on December 16, 1737, the colony's General Assembly created the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York, appointing 30 men who would remain on call in exchange for exemption from jury and militia duty. The city's first official firemen were required to be "able, discreet, and sober men who shall be known as Firemen of the City of New York, to be ready for service by night and by day and be diligent, industrious and vigilant."
Although the 1737 Act created the basis of the fire department, the actual legal entity was incorporated in the State of New York on March 20, 1798, under the name of "Fire Department, City of New York."
The city's oldest fire company still in operation was organized July 10, 1772, as Hook and Ladder Co. 1. The company was disbanded in 1776 when the British Army invaded Manhattan following the Continental Army's loss at the Battle of Brooklyn and the resulting loss of Manhattan after the Landing at Kip's Bay, and most of the firefighters making up the company fled the city. Following the British Evacuation of New York in November 1783, on June 16, 1784, Mutual Hook and Ladder 1 was reorganized. The company operated continuously during the volunteer fire department days, and on the organization of the Paid System, Hook and Ladder Company No.1 was created September 8, 1865, using the same location, the same truck and the same red cap fronts as Mutual Hook and Ladder No.1 did, and nine of her twelve members had served in the old company. It was the only company that was continued with the same number and location, and might be said that Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 has had a continuous existence since June 16, 1784. The company has moved firehouses several times since its inception, and has been housed at 100 Duane Street in Tribeca since December 31, 1905, with Engine 7 and Battalion 1. The company later became the first Tower Ladder company in the city in 1964.
In 1845, the last great fire to affect Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed four firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.
1865–1898
In 1865, the volunteer fire department was abolished by a state act which created the Metropolitan Fire District and the Metropolitan Fire Department. This effectively gave control of the fire departments in the cities of New York and Brooklyn to the Governor who appointed his Board of Commissioners. There was never any effective incorporation of the fire departments of the two cities during this period. It wasn't until the Greater City of New York was consolidated in 1898 that the two were combined under one common organization or organizational structure. The change met with a mixed reaction from the citizens, and some of the eliminated volunteers became bitter and resentful, which resulted in both political battles and street fights. The insurance companies in the city, however, finally won the battle and had the volunteers replaced with paid firefighters. The members of the paid fire department were primarily selected from the prior volunteers. All of the volunteer's apparatus, including their fire houses, were seized by the state who made use of them to form the new organization and form the basis of the current FDNY. The MFD lasted until 1870 when the Tweed Charter ended state control in the city. As a result, a new Board of Fire Commissioners was created and the original name of the Fire Department City of New York was reinstated.Initially, the paid fire service only covered present day Manhattan, until the act of 1865 which united Brooklyn with Manhattan to form the Metropolitan District. The same year the fire department consisted of 13 Chief Officers and 552 Company Officers and firemen. The officers and firemen worked a continuous tour of duty, with three hours a day off for meals and one day off a month, and were paid salaries according to their rank or grade. 1865 also saw the first adoption of regulations, although they were fairly strict and straitlaced. Following several large fires in 1866, the fire department was reorganized under the command of General Alexander Shaler, and with military discipline the paid department reached its full potential which resulted in a general reduction in fire losses. In 1870, the merit system of promotion in the Fire Department was established. Southwestern Westchester County was annexed by New York in 1874; as a result, the volunteers there were phased out and replaced by the paid department. This pattern was repeated as City services expanded elsewhere.