Empire State Building Illuminated Red in Celebration of 150th Anniversary of FDNY

Empire State Building

The Empire State Building was illuminated all in red on the evening of Saturday, May 2, to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the New York City Fire Department.

The origins of the Fire Department of New York date back to 1648, but it wasnâ€™t until May 2, 1865 that the modern-day FDNY was established with the creation of the Metropolitan Fire Department (MFD). The first professional unit, Engine Company 1, went into service later that year with horse-drawn engines and ladder trucks responding to fire calls. In 1870, the MFD was reorganized and the lettering on all apparatus was changed to FDNY. Over the next several decades, the FDNY expanded beyond Manhattan and Brooklyn into all five boroughs, replacing existing volunteer fire departments, building new firehouses and forming new fire companies to meet the fire protection needs of the growing population. In 1996, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporationâ€™s EMS Division merged with the FDNY, creating the largest Department-based EMS system in the country. Today, more than 16,000 FDNY members continue to carry out the life-saving mission of the Department which began 150 years ago.