FDNY commissioner to resign after alternative is discovered – NBC New York
The top of the New York Metropolis Hearth Division has notified Mayor Eric Adams that she intends to step down from her put up with the intention to discover different profession alternatives, officers conversant in the commissioner’s plans advised Information 4.
“My dedication to the FDNY has by no means and can by no means waver. It has been the distinction of a lifetime to dedicate the final 10 years — 5 as first deputy commissioner and greater than two as commissioner — to advocating for the women and men of the FDNY,” Commissioner Laura Kavanagh mentioned in an announcement.
Kavanagh has served because the commissioner for the town’s hearth division for almost two years, after serving because the appearing commissioner following the retirement of Daniel Nigro in Feb. 2022. She has been the primary feminine commissioner within the division’s 159-year historical past.
Adams made her appointment overseeing the FDNY’s 17,000 firefighters and emergency medical staff official in October 2022.
Metropolis Corridor is claimed to have began its seek for her alternative, in keeping with the officers. Kavanagh, they mentioned, has agreed to remain in her position as commissioner till a alternative is discovered.
“Whereas the choice I’ve made over the past month has been a tough one, I’m assured that it’s time for me to cross the torch to the following chief of the best Hearth Division on this planet. I look ahead to spending the following a number of months aiding the division’s transition in management, earlier than embarking on my subsequent skilled problem. Thanks Mayor Adams for the chance you gave me and on your continued help of me and the FDNY.” Kavanagh’s assertion concluded.
In his personal assertion, Adams known as Kavanagh a trailblazer and thanked her for her years of dedication “retaining New Yorkers protected.”
Kavanagh has by no means been a firefighter herself. She was a senior adviser to former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, and a marketing campaign staffer for de Blasio and former President Barack Obama, earlier than becoming a member of the division in an administrative position in 2014. She was named first deputy commissioner in 2018.
As first deputy commissioner and appearing commissioner, Kavanagh oversaw the division’s dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic and its response to tragedies together with a Bronx hearth that killed 19.
“Commissioner Kavanagh’s tenure has been marked by sweeping enhancements to the FDNY’s know-how infrastructure, together with the division’s adoption of robotics, sensible gadgets and revolutionary security gear aimed toward defending firefighters and emergency providers personnel,” in keeping with her bio on the town’s web site.
