Sunday, September 29, 2013

NYC Museums: NYC Fire Department Museum

By Tia Dryer


The Long Island Fire Department has a proud and famous history of saving lives and keeping N. Y. Residents safe, and the NY City Fire Museum celebrates that history. The location calls to mind early 20th century New York City at the heyday of its success, when quick expansion and meteoric rise in the immigrant population made firefighting more important than ever. The New York Fire Department Museum looks in particular at firefighting and how it has developed through the years to what it's become today. From painted buckets and leather belts to helmets and boots and even old style hardware, the Museum of the FDNY has everything you could possibly want to see if you have an interest in the way the FDNY grew, changed and evolved over throughout. If you are at all keen on the golden era or the history of firefighting, it would be a great idea to stop by the New York City Fire Museum.



The Fire Museum is found on the western edge of the trendy Soho neighborhood in Manhattan, at 278 Spring Street near Varick and Hudson. This fashionable neighborhood is more well generally known as a locale for restaurants and shopping specialised shops than as a hot spot for museums in Manhattan, but if you're out having a shopping day in the city and desire to split up the monotony with some history of New York City firefighting, all you have got to do is go west on Spring Street and it's easy to find the museum. The location is pretty simple to get to, as it's a major shopping center for people from all around the city, and a range of trains and buses service both the Spring St. and Houston St. stations nearby.

The largest draw of the New York City Fire Museum is the plethora of authentic firefighting items like equipment, clothing and trucks from as far in the past as the 18th century. Those things includeaxes, leather buckets, lanterns, helmets and one of the first fire engines ever built, the 1790 "Farnam" engine. Rescue and breathing hardware from the early 1900s is also on display, which gives a sense for just how deadly fires were before the advent of modern firefighting apparatus. The development of firefighting is told at the Museum of the FDNY, offering visitors the history and artifacts that help to understand what the life of a NYC firefighter was like and how it has evolved through the years.

Additionally, a popular program for youngsters held by the New York City Fire Museum combines the history of firefighting with helpful tips to know in the the event of a fire. This professionally guided tour of the museum is offered by a retired NY City firefighter who can supplement the data in the museum with real experiences from his life fighting fires as the technology has changed. Kids are also trained on the right procedures to follow in a mock fire event. A house is set up to look as it might if there were a fire, and youngsters learn where to go, what to do and what should not be done. Fire risks are pointed out, and escape strategies are practiced.




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