According to sources at City Hall and the Fire Department, the interim commissioner of the FDNY will be named to the position permanently on Thursday.
The first female commissioner in the 157-year history of the department will be Laura Kavanagh.
According to fire department officials, Mayor Adams will nominate the San Francisco native during a ceremony at Engine 33 and Ladder 9 in Lower Manhattan.
The first fire commissioner, appointed in the late 1800s, had their headquarters at the firehouse, situated on Great Jones St. close to Bowery in NoHo.
Kavanagh began working for the FDNY in 2014, and four years later, he was promoted to first deputy commissioner.
She was in charge of overseeing the department’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020.
Additionally, she is interested in increasing the number of women working in the FDNY’s departments.
Kavanagh has also contributed to initiatives to enhance the knowledge available to firefighters at fire sites.
Following the retirement of Daniel Nigro, the fourth-longest serving fire commissioner in FDNY history, in February, she was elevated to the interim commissioner.
As commissioner, Kavanagh is in charge of the $2 billion yearly budget and the 17,000 FDNY employees.
In times of disaster, she has already served as department head. Firefighter Jesse Gerhard, 33, collapsed and passed suddenly after experiencing a medical episode at his firehouse in Far Rockaway, Queens, on the day Kavanagh was appointed acting commissioner.
Kavanagh referred to the two-alarm fire Gerhard assisted in putting out the day before as a “difficult task.”
Firefighter Timothy Klein, 31, died battling a blaze in a Canarsie, Brooklyn, home less than two months into her employment.
And more recently, after FDNY Paramedic Lt. Alison Russo was killed on a Queens street on September 29, Kavanagh oversaw the department.
Before working for the Fire Department, Kavanagh served as Bill de Blasio’s top advisor and held administrative positions in political campaigns.
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