![]() ![]() The Act provided for the City of New York (at that time consisting only of Manhattan) and the Eastern and Western Districts of Brooklyn to be united to form the Metropolitan Fire District of the State of New York and the creation of a Board of Fire Commissioners (four citizens of this new district) to be appointed by the governor who would create the new paid Metropolitan Fire Department and have exclusive authority to extinguish fires within the new district. The vote was 21Ð6 in the Senate and 81 Ð3 9 in the Assembly. In effect, City Democrats would lose all control over the Fire Department and, more importantly, its finances, thereby also suffering a heavy political loss. On January 16th, 1865 a bill was introduced in the State Legislature entitled "An Act to Create a Metropolitan Fire District" which included the establishment of the soÐcalled Metropolitan Fire District, a Board of Fire Commissioners (appointed by the governor), and a paid department. There was a quick attempt by City Hall and the Volunteer Department to reorganize the department and correct some of the abuses, but it came much too late. This committee study and conclusions resulted in charges that the volunteer system was more expensive and less efficient than a paid department would be that the Chief Engineer was deprived of control of the volunteer department's finances (by a Democratically controlled City Hall) and that there was too much political involvement in the volunteer department. A survey of paid departments operating in other cities was undertaken. Republicans agreed to sponsor a bill in the State Legislature to create a paid department. There were many affidavits from police captains describing the "rioting, pilfering, public annoyance and sabbath desecration" caused by the volunteers. On March 17th, 1864 the Board of Fire Underwriters appointed a committee of officials from insurance companies underwriting fire insurance in New York City to "promote the greater efficiency of the Fire Department." The Metropolitan Police Department supplied quite a bit of evidence to this committee against the volunteers. This movement soon gained two powerful allies: the Metropolitan Police Department, because too many fire alarms resulted in inter company riots, and the State Republican Party who saw a chance to deprive the City Democrats of a valuable political weapon-the volunteer firefighters. Spadafora is one way the FDNY will remember and honor the Chief.During the final days of the Civil War, a movement to replace New York City's volunteer firefighters with a paid department was started by the insurance companies because they felt New York's ordinary fire loss was too heavy. In turn, Firefighting with FDNY Chief Ronald R. ![]() The most prolific author in WNYF history, the variety of topics about which he wrote authoritatively is a tribute to this brilliant man. Following a courageous battle, he succumbed to World Trade Center-related cancer on June 23, 2018. He was promoted regularly, through all ranks, reaching Assistant Chief, Chief of Fire Prevention. The synopses are categorized according to the broad topics of Construction, Fire/Emergency Incidents, Fire Prevention, Green Energy and Management/Leadership.Ĭhief Spadafora was appointed to the FDNY on September 2, 1978. Nine articles on fires/emergencies that he supervised are presented in full.Īdditionally, synopses are provided on the remainder of the 50 plus articles/columns he authored. Spadafora provides a compilation of this author’s articles and columns, which appeared in WNYF (With New York Firefighters), the Fire Department’s official training publication. ![]()
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