The FDNY implemented a number of changes to combat the challenges of the ‘war years’. In 1977, by comparison, the department fought nearly 130,000. In 1960, the FDNY battled roughly 60,000 fires. Arson rates rose, and firefighters were increasingly attacked while riding on the outside of their vehicles. Property values slumped, so landlords took to burning down their assets for insurance payouts. Financial crisis and social unrestĪs New York’s prosperity dwindled in the 1960s and 1970s, poverty and civil unrest grew, leading to what became known as the city’s ‘war years’. It went on to play a critical role in fighting major New York fires such as the Jersey City Pier fire in 1964 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. In 1959 the Marine Division was established. The FDNY developed equipment and strategies to fight fires along the vast waterfront area of the city with a squad of fire-fighting boats. The department rapidly expanded over the next 100 years to prepare for the possibility of attack during multiple foreign wars, whilst dealing with the complexity of protecting the city’s fast-growing population. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on 25 March 1911. A system of hoses was introduced alongside more elaborate fire fighting apparatus such as hand pumpers, hook and ladder trucks, and hose reels, all of which had to be hand-drawn. As the city’s population expanded, a more efficient means of fighting fires was needed. In 1663 the British took over the New Amsterdam settlement and renamed it New York. This was due to their equipment being little more than a large number of buckets and ladders that the group would patrol the local streets with, watching out for fires in the wooden chimneys or thatched roofs of local houses. The origins of the FDNY date back to 1648, when New York was a Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam.Ī recently arrived immigrant called Peter Stuyvesant formed a group of local volunteer fire wardens who became known as ‘the bucket brigades’. From the Great Fire of 1835 to the 1977 Blackout and the more recent devastation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ‘New York’s Bravest’ have been at the forefront of some of the world’s most famous fires. The department has faced some unique fire-fighting challenges in its history. Approximately some 11,000 uniformed fire-fighting employees serve the city’s 8.5 million residents. The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the biggest Fire Department in the United States and the second largest in the world, after the Tokyo Fire Department.
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