The FDNY Announces 2025 End-of-Year Accomplishments

December 16, 2025

The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) today announced accomplishments made in 2025 and during the past four years under the leadership of Mayor Eric Adams. From advancing public safety education and modernizing emergency response, the FDNY has made strides to better protect all New Yorkers.

Throughout the past four years, the Department has launched new initiatives to improve response times, enhance fire prevention, and reduce fire deaths.

"Every initiative and improvement we make in the FDNY is focused on one goal: saving lives," said Fire Commissioner Robert S. Tucker. "From fire protection inspectors, to dispatchers, to Fire and EMS Operations, our members work hard every day to protect New Yorkers. The FDNY responds to more than one million calls for help a year, and we use every tool available to keep our members safe and serve this City."

"We took office with a simple promise: to 'Get Stuff Done,' and, four years later, our administration can say we delivered that every day for working-class New Yorkers," said Mayor Adams. "We drove shootings to record lows and pushed jobs and small businesses to record highs. We rewrote the playbook on homelessness and mental health to finally get New Yorkers living on our streets the help they need, and, after decades of half-measures, passed historic housing legislation to turn New York into a 'City of Yes.' We overhauled the way our students learn to read and do math, cut the cost of child care, and forgave medical debt. We eliminated taxes for low-income families, launched free universal after-school programming, and cut lithium-ion fire deaths by an astonishing 67 percent. We got scaffolding off our buildings, trash bags off our streets, and opened up new public spaces for New Yorkers to enjoy. The haters may have doubted us, but the results are clear. On issue after issue, we brought common-sense leadership to create a safer, more affordable city, and our work has changed our city for the better; it will stand the test of time because we made New York City the best place to live and raise a family."

Leading the Fight Against Lithium-ion Battery Fires

Since 2021, the FDNY has led the nation in addressing the threat of lithium-ion battery fires. Through strong enforcement, education, and public outreach, the FDNY is the national leader in lithium-ion battery safety, hosting symposiums, demonstrations, and multi-agency collaborations that have strengthened regulations and responses to lithium-ion battery incidents.

In response to the increasing number of fires caused by micromobility devices, the FDNY created the Lithium-ion Battery Task Force, including Fire Marshals, Fire Protection Inspectors, and inspectors from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). They consistently inspect businesses and dangerous conditions around the city to ensure the safety of building residents and workers.

In 2024 and 2025, the FDNY launched educational ad campaigns to raise awareness on the dangers of lithium-ion batteries. The 2024 campaign produced more than 83 million impressions across social media and targeted ads in the subway system. The 2025 campaign produced over 36 million impressions across all ethnic media channels.

Consistent safety messaging and enforcement has also led to a significant decrease in the number of people killed by lithium-ion battery fires in New York City. In 2023, 18 people died in lithium-ion battery fires. In 2024 the number of deaths caused by these fires fell to six. To date in 2025, there has been one death caused by a lithium-ion battery fire.

Overall, the Department has reduced the occurrences of structural fires, or fires in apartments, businesses, or homes. In 2024, 277 fires were started by lithium-ion battery fires, compared to 268 in 2023. 135 of these fires were non-structural. In 2023, 90 fires were non-structural. This indicates that the public is hearing the Department's message about storing and charging these devices outside where possible.

Improving Response Times

FDNY leadership have implemented operational changes focused on reducing emergency response times.

Hospital Liaison Officers (HLO) launched in October 2024 have reduced ambulance turnaround times by at least seven minutes at participating hospitals.
Paramedic Response Units (PRUs) deployed in northern Manhattan and the Bronx are expediting care for critical patients and returning paramedics to service faster.
A new telehealth initiative allows 911 calls from low-acuity patients to be transferred directly to NYC Health + Hospitals providers, reducing unnecessary ambulance responses.
To further reduce strain on the 911 system, the FDNY has piloted a public service announcement campaign in the Bronx to educate New Yorkers on when it is appropriate to call 911, outlining what constitutes a medical emergency; the role of paramedics and emergency medical technicians; and resources such as urgent care centers, telehealth, and telemedicine.

Making Fire Prevention a Citywide Priority

A top priority of the FDNY has always been educating the public about fire safety and eliminating residential fire deaths. Commissioner Tucker declared 2025 the "Year of Fire Prevention," marking the 100th anniversary of the FDNY's observance of National Fire Prevention Week.

Working with the FDNY Foundation and the American Red Cross, the Department relaunched the #GetAlarmedNYC campaign in October 2025, with a goal of installing 15,000 free smoke alarms in one year. Since August 2025, more than 7,600 alarms have been installed. Since its inception in 2015, #GetAlarmedNYC has distributed or installed more than 309,000 smoke alarms.

The FDNY also issued its first-ever criminal summons following a fatal fire in which a hydrant closest to the fire was blocked by a vehicle. At a February 2025 3-alarm fire on Anthony Avenue that killed two people, the Department's Bureau of Fire Prevention issued a criminal court summons that resulted in a $4,000 fine for a fire code violation. The Department's BFP inspectors have continued to use this tool, both at fatal and multiple alarm fires, to deter drivers from blocking fire hydrants and delaying fire operations. Guilty parties can be fined up to $5,000.

Other tickets:

March 13, 2025 – Jerome Avenue in the Bronx at a 5-alarm fire in a commercial building.
June 27, 2025 - 65 Jesup Place in the Bronx at a fatal 2-alarm fire.
September 8, 2025 – 245 Hawthorne Street in Brooklyn at a 2-alarm fire caused by illegal torch work.
December 12, 2025 – 1140 St. Lawrence Avenue in the Bronx at a fatal 2-alarm fire.

Leveraging Technology to Keep New Yorkers Safe

The FDNY continues to lead the nation in using technology to improve firefighter safety and enhance operational decision-making.

On March 6, 2017, the Department deployed its first-ever drone to the scene of a four-alarm fire in the Bronx. Since then, FDNY drones have been used in numerous operations across all five boroughs, providing incident commanders with both thermal and visual data in real time. Today’s FDNY Robotics Unit has multiple drones equipped with zoom and thermal cameras, allowing incident commanders to identify hotspots, assess structural integrity, and watch for fire spread. The aerial perspective helps inform tactical decisions, ensuring resources are deployed efficiently and safely. FDNY drones are regularly dispatched to second-alarm or greater fires and technical rescues.

For the past two years, the FDNY Robotics Unit has also patrolled city beaches to monitor for swimmers in distress and shark activity, flying over the water during the summer season in the Rockaways. These drones are equipped with inflatable rescue tubes that can be dropped directly to swimmers in need and the unit works closely with NYC Parks lifeguards to keep swimmers safe.

The Department is also leveraging emerging technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve response times and administrative processes. In partnership with NYU Tandon's Transportation Center, a virtual model of neighborhood traffic patterns was created to understand the root causes of emergency response delays and test potential solutions before attempting them on actual streets. AI tools are being used in the FDNY's Bureau of Health Services to streamline administrative processes and improve data analysis.

In the fall of 2024, the Department formed its Brush Fire Task Force, to combat a historical spike in brush fires. In 2025, the FDNY installed multiple brush fire detection cameras in select City parks as part of its continuing efforts to combat brush fires across the five boroughs. The solar-powered cameras, which use artificial intelligence to detect smoke and flame activity, are positioned high above the ground, like traffic cameras, and provide live video feeds to the Fire Department Operations Command (FDOC).

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The FDNY has advanced its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion through significant legislative reforms. In November 2022, Mayor Adams signed a comprehensive five-bill package aimed at improving recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups, upgrading mixed-gender firehouse facilities, mandating annual demographic and complaints reporting, and requiring ongoing diversity and anti-harassment training across the Department.

On Friday, February 14, 2025, Deputy Chief Michele Fitzsimmons made history as the first female to reach the rank of deputy chief in fire operations. A 24-year veteran of the Department, Chief Fitzsimmons is currently the highest-ranking female firefighter.

In 2023, the Department released findings of its first ever Climate Survey, available to all firefighters, to assess their opinions of leadership and professionalism in the workplace and inform strategies for organizational change. The report provides an overview of findings and identifies opportunities to improve climate and culture in the firehouse. Findings of a second survey were released in December 2025. The Department is committed to administering the survey every other year.

Community Outreach

The FDNY's commitment to public safety extends beyond emergency response to direct engagement with communities across the five boroughs.

The Fire Safety Education Unit (FSEU) conducts outreach and educational programs focused on preventing fires and injuries, particularly among the city's most vulnerable and at-risk populations. Through school visits, senior center presentations, and neighborhood events, FSEU members provide lifesaving information that empowers New Yorkers to stay safe at home and in their communities. To date in 2025, the FSEU has given 2,150 fire safety presentations, reaching 462,797 New Yorkers.

With generous support from the FDNY Foundation and its partners, the Department continues to expand its public training programs. FDNY members teach free hands-only CPR classes and recently launched the "Control the Bleed" initiative, which trains bystanders to respond effectively to life-threatening bleeding emergencies. Both programs are taught by highly trained FDNY EMS instructors. In 2025, the FDNY's Mobile CPR Unit taught 101,960 New Yorkers hands-only CPR.

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