New York City Fire Department

Appeals Court Rules on New York Fire Department Discrimination

The Fire Department of New York has a discrimination problem: In a city where, in 2002, 25 percent of the population was black and 27 percent was Hispanic, the Fire Department was 2.6 percent black and 3.7 percent Hispanic. Other city agencies don't have this problem, and neither do fire departments ... More >>

The FDNY's "Bad Lieutenant" Resigns Because The FDNY Has A Social Media Problem

About a month ago, the New York Post ran a frontpage story on Timothy Dluhos, a 12-year EMS lieutenant in Bed-Stuy with a really terrible social media presence. This guy was tweeting things like "I'm going to give up racial insults for Lent. Jesus that didn't [last] too long. F--ken chinks can't dri ... More >>

We Should Be Thankful For The New FDNY Social Media Guidelines

Last week, fellow Voice scribe Nick Greene gave us the lowdown on social media informalities for Facebook. Can you post that picture(s) of your vacation? No, please don't. How about your political views? Stop, nobody cares. And what about a job promotion? Ugh. You get the picture. Well, these stand ... More >>

FDNY: Saturday's Seaport Fire Was Caused By Faulty Wiring

Saturday's three-alarm fire at the South Street Seaport, which temporarily suspended the Voice's 4Knots Music Festival, was caused by faulty electrical wiring, according to a New York Fire Department spokesman.

After Mounting Pressure, Mayor's Office Gives Out Hard Copies of 'Final' 9-1-1 Report

Today, the mayor's office gave out hard copies of the city's controversial 9-1-1 report to reporters that asked for it. The Voice stopped by City Hall late this afternoon to grab a copy of the 133-page consultant's report that examined the city's emergency response system. It has been a topic of m ... More >>

Will the FDNY Remain Over 90 Percent White and Male?

A Society of Black Firefighters Hopes to Bring More Minorities to the Job

Car Plunges Into Hudson River Off West Side Highway [Updated]

​A car plunged into the Hudson River off of the West Side Highway earlier this morning, according to reports. The FDNY confirms the incident and says the call came in at 10:05 a.m. -- the vehicle went into the water near West 94th Street. One person was removed from the water prior to FDNY arr ... More >>

285 Madison Elevator Accident Results in Injuries to Three, One Reported Dead [Updated]

​We're hearing reports that there's been an accident in an elevator at 285 Madison, the Young and Rubicam building, that's resulted in 1 person dead and 2 injured, according to the New York Times. The FDNY confirms the incident and tells us that the elevator fell at least 2 floors, and that 3 ... More >>

Vehicle on Fire Reported in Midtown, Near Macy's [Updated]

​We're hearing reports that there's a school bus or another vehicle on fire at 35th Street and 7th Avenue, near Macy's. The Corcoran Group has Tweeted a photo, saying, "A truck is on fire outside Macys on 7th Avenue, sounds of explosions nearby." The FDNY tells us there is smoke in the area a ... More >>

FDNY vs. NYPD in Charity Boxing Match for Wounded Veteran

​This Saturday, the NYPD and FDNY are occupying (ha!) Madison Square Garden for a good cause. The NYPD Fighting Finest will fight the FDNY Bravest in the Battle of the Badges, a boxing match for charity. The boxing match is happening just a week after Veterans Day and benefits former soldiers. ... More >>

FDNY Confiscates Occupy Wall Street's Generators

​The fire department and police department paid Occupy Wall Street a visit this morning and took their power generators. The FDNY says they were looking for anything that posed a fire hazard: generators, fuel, gas tanks, etc. According to reports, the materials were removed peaceably. This i ... More >>

MTA Responds to 4 Train "Smoke Condition," Says Cause is "Still Under Investigation"

Steven Thrasher​The MTA has responded to the incident involving the 4 train being stuck, in smoke, under the East River last night, with which we were intimately familiar. The (very) good news is that no one, including none of the five firefighters we left down there when our evacuation train ... More >>

The City Goes Back to Federal Court Over the FDNY

​The City of New York was back in United States District Judge Nicholas Garaufis' courtroom today, just a few weeks after the judge issued a blistering order calling the FDNY "a bastion of white male privilege." Garaufis's order mandated that the FDNY and the city will be placed under a "Cour ... More >>

Paul Washington of the Vulcan Society: "The FDNY Has Been Lily White for 150 Years"

FDNY Captain Paul Washington is a past president of the Vulcan Society. He was also the FDNY employee who raised the original Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint about the department's racial makeup, which joined a decades long federal lawsuit against the city and led to yesterday's la ... More >>

9|11: The Winners

For some people, the terrorist attacks have been a gold mine

FDNY Rescues Driver From Truck Dangling From Sanitation Garage

​This photo just in. Somehow, a garbage (some are saying a salt) truck managed to get in this precarious position, two stories high, dangling out of a sanitation garage at 58-35 52 Road at 59th Street in Queens. The FDNY tweeted the photo, which is, you have to admit, pretty freaking dramatic, ... More >>

Man Attempting to Jump Off Roof of 30 Rock Has Been Rescued (Updated)

via @Durrellojello​A man is attempting to jump off the 70th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the FDNY confirmed. There is currently a fire engine and EMS on the scene. People at NBC have been discussing the situation on Twitter -- including @Durrellojello and Luke Russert. @Durrellojello explain ... More >>

Amadou Diallo Shooters, Wife Beaters Still Became Firefighters: FDNY Brass

​More fascinating news from the courtroom of Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, via The Daily News: the questionable pasts of white candidates were overlooked when they came up for review with the FDNY, a deposition stated yesterday. Even former NYPD cops Richard Murphy and Edward McMellon, who ... More >>

Salvatore Cassano, FDNY Commissioner, Recruits in Black Church as New FDNY Hiring Period Opens

​ After a federal judge ruled about what the fee will be to take it, the FDNY opened up the filing period for its newest exam to become a firefighter. From last Friday, until September 15, 2011, candidates can apply here to take the new exam. Meanwhile, in an effort to do something about the ... More >>

Judge Orders City Not To Increase Fee for New FDNY Entrance Exam

​Nothing is ever easy with the federal government's four decade long attempt to force the city to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and make the Fire Department more diverse. As we wrote about in our cover story last December, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis recently ordered that ... More >>

The FDNY Fireman Calendar Is Now for Sale

​We'd say that the Official 2011/2012 Calendar of Heroes featuring FDNY firefighters, which sells for a mere $15.95 for 16 whole months, is a bargain at twice the price, but we simply can't stop staring at that man's perfectly rakish eyebrows! All proceeds go to the FDNY Foundation, which mean ... More >>

Basement Fire on St. Marks

via Zach Baron​Firefighters have responded to a fire on 11 St. Marks Place, between Second and Third avenues. They are currently at the scene of the fire, which was reported at 1:32 p.m. The Fire Department informs us there was a 21-unit response. The first responders arrived at 1:34 p.m. Th ... More >>

Black FDNY Electrician Confronted with Noose

​Looks like race will continue to be a hot issue with the FDNY. According to the Daily News, a black FDNY electrician allegedly found a noose outside of his work locker over the weekend. The News reports that the electrician, Gregory Seabrook, was one of four black FDNY electricians who "file ... More >>

FDNY's Black Firefighter Problem

Meet the black candidates who aced the FDNY's supposedly racist entrance exam—and still can't become firefighters

"Die in a Fire" Is Kind of an Empty Threat Now

​ Good news for all of those drug-addled New Yorkers who are more likely to get murdered: at least they don't have to worry about burning to death in a fire! The FDNY says that for the second year in a row, the city is on track to set a record low for fire fatalities. Which means New Yorkers f ... More >>

Fire at Ageloff Towers in the East Village Now Under Control

via EV Grieve/jdx​This morning in the East Village we've been hearing a lot of helicopter and siren noise (more than usual, even!). Turns out there was a fire at the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A between 3rd and 4th Streets. Via a reader, jdx, EV Grieve reports, "Fire on the 6th floor, east 4th s ... More >>

FDNY Finds Hydroponic Pot Farm in Lower East Side Basement

​Oh dear. Lower East Side blog Bowery Boogie reports some drug-fueled drama that went down in a tenement on Rivington Street Monday night when a resident's 911 call led to 10 evictions and the discovery of a hydroponic marijuana farm in the basement of a local Mexican eatery.

5 Alarm Blaze: NYC Firefighter Busted with Bundles of Hydroponic Chronic (Weed)

​"Smoke weed every day," singer/rapper Nate Dogg once famously encouraged listeners. And so it goes: marijuana smokers are a-plenty in America, and of course, in our city. And who better to know how to control the "sparking up" of a bowl of Five-Borough Bud than one of the Fire Department of N ... More >>

Apotheke Owner Albert Trummer, Firestarter, Arrested for Combustible Bar Trick

The Dizzy FizzDrink of fire.​Albert Trummer, co-owner and head mixologist at Chinatown bar Apotheke, is known to occasionally throw booze on the bar and light it on fire. That nifty little party trick got the Austrian-born drinks slinger arrested by the Fire Department this past weekend.

FDNY Saves Puppies and Kitties in Pet Store Fire Peril

​Okay, we're calling it a day. Depressed that you're back in the normal grind of things after a lovely three-day weekend? And that the weather sucks? So is everyone else, asshole. Cheer up! How? Funny you ask.

Radiation in the East Village? Levels Are "Negligible," Says FDNY

​Blogger EV Grieve and a few of our Twitter friends have alerted us to a "radiation alert" in the East Village. Per EV Grieve reader cheese: "Yeah, my friend called and said there were fire trucks out, street blocked, something about hazardous material trucks also."

FDNY Ordered to Hire More Blacks -- But Budget Woes May Scuttle That for Now

​By Alana Horowitz and Sara Gates Three months ago, when a federal judge ruled that the FDNY had discriminated against minority applicants, it appeared that diversity in the ranks might improve. But at least now, with the city's budget a shambles, that looks unlikely. U.S. District Court Ju ... More >>

Barrett: The Post and Daily News Rush to Defend Bloomberg's FDNY Apartheid

​The Daily News and the Post have rushed to the defense of Fire Department exams that have given us the whitest rank and file of any big-city department in the country, with 303 black firefighters out of 8,998, a percentage that's actually lower than the last time a federal judge ruled the sam ... More >>

Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano is New FDNY Commissioner

​And the new Fire Commissioner is -- Salvatore Cassano! Awright, we win the pool! Cassano is 64, FDNY's Chief of Department (highest ranked uniformed officer), a 40-year veteran, and a former soldier. He has spoken for the department on controversial issues like anti-terrorism protocol. He w ... More >>

FDNY Cuts 49 Engine Companies' Staff from 5 to 4; Union Protests

​When word got out that the city was considering closing 25 firehouses, we figured less drastic cuts would be announced later. Today the city says it will reduce staffing at 49 engine companies. (New York currently has 194 such companies.) The city's contract with the firefighters' union al ... More >>

Bloomberg calls fire at 9/11 chapel arson

​The FDNY are saying that a fire in the Memorial Park where unidentified remains of 9/11 victims are stored was deliberately set, an act Mayor Bloomberg calls "craven and contemptible." The remains are being temporarily stored in a weatherproof tent near the Medical Examiner's office while a ... More >>

25 firehouses could be on the block

​Sources are telling the Post that city officials are considering closing 25 firehouses in the five boroughs as a cost-cutting measure. Each closing would contribute $1 million to the city's $5 billion budget gap. The city proposed 16 company closings in this year's budget.

FDNY Shake-Up After Deutsche Bank Blunders

Smoking Caused the Deutsche Bank fire: Mayor

Two Firefighters Injured at Deutsche Bank site

Criminal Probe of Deutsche Bank Building Fire Launched

Blunt Trauma

Firefighters for whom 9-11 never ends

Preparing for a Higher 9-11 Toll

911 on 9-11: "You Alright Up There?"

Firefighters' Kin Call for Backup

Open and Shut

Four years later, we still have ten big questions

The Fire Next Time

Skyscraper safety: the push for NY's high-rises to learn not to burn

Bum Raps?

9-11, Inc.

Firefighters Are Upset About a Memorial. Other People Are Upset About Fake Memorabilia. Upset?

Ambulance Wars

How Private Ambulance Crews Steer Patients Away From Public Hospitals