Learn more about Department history at the New York City Fire Museum, the official museum of the FDNY. The Board of Fire Commissioners, in place since 1865, was replaced by a single Commissioner. A new charter accompanied the reorganization of the City. September 11 was on the order of five five-alarm responses, involving more than 214 FDNY units112 engines, 58 ladder trucks, five rescue companies, seven squad companies, four marine units. Keene and provides supplements to Department Order No. On January 1, 1898, the Greater City of New York was formed with the FDNY now overseeing all fire services in the newly formed boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. was removed and the lettering on all apparatus was changed to the now-familiar F.D.N.Y.Īround the same time, origins of the Department’s Emergency Medical Service began to take shape with horse-drawn ambulances dispatched by telegraph from Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. The reorganized Department changed leadership, titles of rank and even its name. The first reference to the nomenclature F-D-N-Y was made in 1870 after the Department became a municipally controlled organization. The first ladder trucks were pulled by two horses and carried wooden portable ladders in sizes up to 73 feet. The first professional unit, Engine Company Number 1, went into service on July 31,1865, at four Centre Street in Manhattan. The origins of the Fire Department of New York City date back to 1648, but it wasn’t until 1865 that the modern-day FDNY first was established with the creation of the Metropolitan Fire Department (M.F.D.).