FDNY: Instant Community Notification

The pilot program goes online June 20 with initial participation of 220 FDNY community Engine Companies and Ladder Companies from across the five boroughs. The mobile media based system can send instantaneous email or text notifications when firehouses are closed for any reason at all. As the pilot program expands citywide, each FDNY company will be included.

Members of each of the participating firehouses notify the UFA via a text alert when they are taken out of service, resulting in the transmission of a warning notification to the FireSafeNY.org community notification system. The real-time system then updates an online heat map identifying each community fire company and transmits an alert to the smart phone or email address of participants in that neighborhood who opt-in to the free 24/7 service.

Among central reasons why FDNY companies are taken out of service:

• Relocated to protect another NY City neighborhood because another
  community's fire company is not available to respond at this time;
• Closed for training classes;
• Closed for repairs of the fire truck;
• Closed for a public event and is on stand-by in another
  neighborhood;
• Closed for random drug testing of all working members today;
• Operating with insufficient manpower;
• Closed due to a lack of manpower;
• Closed for other reasons;
• Closed from 9am-6pm for medical exams of all working members today;

Anyone can opt-in to receive email notices every time their neighborhood fire company is out of service by going to here and registering. There is no cost. This site displays a Google Map of all five boroughs, showing the fire companies contained in each neighborhood.

Each time a fire company is out of service the Google heat map will reflect the closing in real time and show the percentage of units available to respond to emergencies, as well as sending out notices to program participants in that vicinity.