Laura Kavanagh appointed FDNY commissioner, first woman to hold the post
Laura Kavanagh is named FDNY commissioner on Thursday, making her the first woman to hold the job. Credit: FDNY
Laura Kavanagh was sworn in Thursday morning as FDNY commissioner by Mayor Eric Adams, the first woman to hold the top post in the fire department's 165-year history.
Kavanagh, a 40-year-old civilian, government official and longtime political aide, has been acting commissioner since February, when the then-commissioner, Daniel Nigro, retired after eight years on that job. She had been first deputy commissioner under Nigro and before that oversaw external affairs.
Nigro had been a longtime firefighter and supervisor, but both started in their latest posts under Adams' predecessor Bill de Blasio, in 2014.
“Yes, this is historic — the first woman to lead the largest fire department in the country,” Adams said on Thursday, making the announcement at FDNY Engine 33/Ladder 9 on Great Jones Street in Manhattan. Adams said he picked her after a national search, which included interviews of "several" candidates, but "over and over again, I just kept coming back to her leadership."
Asked why he took so long to elevate her from acting status, Adams said: “I didn't know FDNY. I didn't understand the culture. I didn’t understand the agency, and this is an organization that is rooted in tradition, and you can't just drop anyone in FDNY.”
The FDNY commissioner oversees the FDNY's $2.1 billion budget, 11,000 uniformed personnel and 6,500 civilians — including firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, marshals, inspectors and 911 dispatchers.
Kavanagh has been the public face of the department since February — including most recently when Lt. Alison Russo, the paramedic from Huntington, was fatally stabbed last month while grabbing lunch in Queens.
In a news release, Adams' office said that Kavanagh helped oversee the FDNY's response to the outbreaks of Ebola early in de Blasio's tenure and coronavirus beginning in 2020, as well as working in City Hall as a special assistant to de Blasio. Before joining the city government, she was a campaign consultant with nonprofits, unions and other organizations. She has a master's degree in public administration from Columbia University.
Standing Thursday in front of a group of other female administration appointees assembled for the occasion, Kavanagh said: "My story is a quintessentially New York City story … where a shy, introverted, only child could get a one-way ticket to New York City seeking to serve a higher purpose in the best city on earth, and two decades later, finds herself here leading the greatest fire department in the world through unprecedented times," she said, adding: "The FDNY too is about making the impossible possible — pulling lives from a wrecked car or from a burning building, bringing back people teetering on the cusp of death so that they can return home to their loved ones …"
From about 250 firehouses and ambulance stations, the FDNY responds to more 300,000 fires and non-fire emergencies every year and more than 1.5 million medical episodes, according to the Mayor's Management Report.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
