Education - FDNY History

A Quick History of the FDNY - by Peter Rothenberg and Geoff Giglierano
Chapter 1: Begining With a Blaze	Chapter 8: The Process of Professionalization
Chapter 2: The First Fire Engines	Chapter 9: Faster and Better in a Changing City
Chapter 3: Competition	Chapter 10: Covering More Ground
Chapter 4: Hear the Loud Alarm Bells	Chapter 11: Firefighting Starts Becoming a Science
Chapter 5: Pumpers and Politics	Chapter 12: Larger Events Affect the Department
Chapter 6: Decline of the Volunteer System	Chapter 13: FDNY and Times of Social Upheaval
Chapter 7: Volunteer Department's Demise	Chapter 14 The Job Goes On

Chapter 11: Firefighting Starts Becoming a Science

"The rapid development in all cities of modern technical industries has proven, to my mind, a source of great danger, for the reason that its application is not always conducted with care and proper understanding....In all large cities, especially those of comparatively modern construction, the danger of fires is always greater....If the people, by concerted action, would assist the municipal authorities in removing and avoiding the causes of fires, and as far as possible guard against their outbreak, it would greatly aid the efforts of the Department and prevent, in a great measure, the loss which these disasters entail."
Report of the Fire Department of the City of New York, for the Year Ending December 31, 1899, New York, 1900, pp.3-4

By the 1900s, FDNY was an extremely large, well-equipped and well-organized firefighting force. The technological response to the problems of the modern city included a fleet of 10 fireboats, the construction from 1903 to 1908 of a high pressure hydrant system in certain vital parts of the city, the adoption of improved breathing and rescue equipment, and the motorization of the department.

Motorization brought revolutionary changes to the department. In 1909, FDNY's first piece of actual motorized firefighting apparatus, a Knox high pressure hose wagon, entered service. The department started buying gas and electric-powered tractors in 1911 to replace the horses that pulled its steam pumpers, aerial ladders, and water towers. Gas-powered vehicles won out and over the course of the next ten years, FDNY bought a wide variety, including Ahrens-Fox, Robinson, and American LaFrance pumpers, Christie and Van Blerck tractors, and Mack and South Bend hose wagons. The department particularly liked the American LaFrance Type 75 pumper, and several hundred of these were purchased in the late 1910s and the 1920s. The last run by a horse-drawn FDNY vehicle was made by Engine Co. 205 in Brooklyn on December 20, 1922.

Training was improved in 1911 with the creation of the Fire College, "to disseminate knowledge of fire fighting and to establish and maintain the highest professional standards" among the department's officers. In 1912, a Fire Prevention Bureau was established, And in 1915, the city's first Rescue Company was formed. The new Fire Prevention Bureau was a reflection of the growing understanding of the importance of keeping fires from happening by educating people and promoting safety codes. Interest in fire prevention and safety education was heightened by the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire on March 25, 1911. A fire in a clothing factory on the eighth and ninth floors of a "fireproof" building left 146 workers dead, most of them young immigrant girls.

Greater improvements came after FDNY members organized the Uniformed Firefighters Association in 1919. In that same year, the FDNY ended the old continuous duty system, under which the members of the department were on duty 21 hours per day, seven days a week. This was replaced by the two platoon system under which the companies were divided into two 12 hour shifts and the men only had to work a total of 84 hours per week.