FDNY Pro Blog

In 2018, the FDNY’s Bureau of Training introduced a new initiative called the FDNY’s Strategic Awareness Program. Its mission is to enhance peer education for  Chiefs and their aides across the five boroughs, allowing them to share their experiences on specific topics or operations. Deputy Chief […]

As Special Operations Firefighter Jackie-Michelle Martinez, of Squad 270, approaches her 20th year with the FDNY, she looks back at her career path as a Cadet, EMT, Academy Instructor, and Firefighter. She discusses her experience as the Department’s first Women’s Outreach Coordinator, an historic appointment that […]

By mid-March 2020, several states, including New York, were locked down and people were experiencing in real time the watershed change the country would soon fully experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the earliest businesses to be closed were gyms and fitness centers. It was, […]

In the early morning hours of September 29, 2020, FDNY companies in Washington Heights, Manhattan encountered heavy fire and multiple people trapped on the top floor – the floor above the fire – of a six story U-shaped residential building. Battalion Chief Tom Fitzgerald (Battalion 16), […]

The voices from the guests of the FDNY Pro Podcast in 2020 have been informative and noteworthy. In this episode, we’ll revisit highlights from this year, which has certainly presented challenges. Yet through it all, the commitment to public service and safety from our members is […]

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDNY Community Affairs Unit pivoted their primary fire and life safety outreach from a largely in-person model to a mainly digital one. While difficult, it was a move that was made a bit easier as the Department […]

When the COVID-19 crisis began in early 2020, the Department and its members were challenged in ways like never before. The pandemic’s arrival proved to be both deadly and difficult to combat. One of the core duties of the Department’s First Deputy Commissioner Laura Kavanagh is […]

Each year on the FDNY Pro Podcast, we mark the anniversary of September 11, 2001 by featuring an FDNY member who responded to the WTC attacks on that day. John Sudnik began his career as an FDNY Firefighter appointed in October 1989 and assigned to Engine […]

As seen in the FDNY Pro Film, The Last Resort, on October 27, 2016, an early morning fire in an upper Manhattan 5-story tenement left residents fleeing for their lives. With a fire escape located only on the front of the building, and heavy fire on […]

Fighting top floor fires in H-Type buildings or large multiple dwellings is complicated and challenging. FDNY Lieutenant Michael Scotto, a 41-year member of the Department currently working at Ladder 58 in the Bronx, joins host Battalion Chief Brian Mulry to discuss the operational challenges Firefighters have […]