page_title: New York City Fire Department
section_title: 1648–1865
hierarchical_section_title: New York City Fire Department / History / 1648–1865
caption_attribution_description: English: Caption: "WASHINGTON INSTITUTE AND CITY RESERVOIR." No credit line. In 1830 the New York City Fire Department's first reservoir (the octagonal building) was erected near the southeast corner of 13th Street and Fourth Avenue; in 1850 New York Medical College was founded in a new building on the site, at 112 East 13th Street. The Washington Institute on 13th Street was a private school for boys; in the late 1840s the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity acquired the property and founded St. Vincent's Hospital there. Sources: Bradford Map of New York City (1839) shows location of reservoir. Fay and Dakin, pp. 27-9 Jacobi, Abraham. "The New York Medical College 1782-1906" Annals of Medical History Vol. 1 No. 4 (Winter 1917), p. 370. Online provider: Google Books. Perris, William. Maps of the City of New York Vol. 4 (Perris &amp; Browne, 1853), Plate 52 (St. Vincent Hospital and New York Medical College). Online provider: New York Public Library. "Prospectus: St. Vincent's Hospital, New-York" (advertisement). New-York Daily Tribune 1849-11-16 p. 4 col. 5: "Thirteenth-st. between Third and Fourth avenues, formerly known as the Washington Institute." Online provider: Library of Congress. Sheldon, George W. The Story of the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York (New York: Harper &amp; Brothers, 1882), pp. 94-5. Online provider: Google Books.
context_page_description: The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York, is a department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection, technical rescue services, primary response to biological, chemical, and radioactive hazards, and emergency medical services responses to the five boroughs of New York City.
  The New York City Fire Department is the largest municipal fire department in the United States and the second largest in the world after the Tokyo Fire Department. The FDNY employs approximately 10,951 uniformed firefighters, 4,301 uniformed EMTs, paramedics, and 2,096 civilian employees. Its regulations are compiled in title 3 of the New York City Rules. The FDNY's motto is New York's Bravest for fire and New York's Best for EMS. The FDNY serves more than 8.5 million residents within a 302 square mile area.
  The FDNY headquarters is located at 9 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn, and the FDNY Fire Academy is located on Randalls Island. The International Association of Firefighters locals are 94 & 854.
context_section_description: The origins of the New York City Fire Department go back to 1648 when the first fire ordinance was adopted in what was then the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. Peter Stuyvesant, within one year of his arrival, appointed four fire wardens to wooden chimneys of thatched-roofed wooden houses, charging a penalty to owners whose chimneys were improperly swept. The first four fire wardens were Martin Krieger, Thomas Hall, Adrian Wyser, and George Woolsey.
  Hooks, ladders and buckets were financed through the collection of fines for dirty chimneys, and a fire watch was established, consisting of eight wardens which were drawn from the male population. An organisation known as the prowlers but given the nickname the rattle watch patrolled the streets with buckets, ladders and hooks from nine in the evening until dawn looking for fires. Leather shoe buckets, 250 in all, were manufactured by local Dutch shoemakers in 1658, and these bucket brigades are regarded as the beginning of the New York Fire Department.
  In 1664 New Amsterdam became an English settlement and was renamed New York. The first New York fire brigade entered service in 1731 equipped with two hand-drawn pumpers which had been transported from London, England. These two pumpers formed Engine Company 1 and Engine Company 2. These were the first fire engines to be used in the American colonies, and all able-bodied citizens were required to respond to a fire alarm and to participate in the extinguishing under the supervision of the Aldermen.
  The city's first firehouse was built in 1736 in front of City Hall on Broad Street. A year later, on December 16, 1737, the colony's General Assembly created the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York, appointing 30 men who would remain on call in exchange for exemption from jury and militia duty. The city's first official firemen were required to be "able, discreet, and sober men who shall be known as Firemen of the City of New York, to be ready for service by night and by day and be diligent, industrious and vigilant."
  Although the 1737 Act created the basis of the fire department, the actual legal entity was incorporated in the State of New York on March 20, 1798 under the name of "Fire Department, City of New York."
  In 1845, the last great fire to affect Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed four firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.
caption: First firefighting reservoir, behind school, 1831
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