The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is a full-service agency responsible for fire suppression, hazardous materials response, emergency medical services, and technical rescue across all five boroughs, serving over 8.5 million residents in a 302-square-mile area. As the largest municipal fire department in North America and the Western Hemisphere—and the second largest in the world after the Tokyo Fire Department—it employs more than 11,000 firefighters, 4,500 uniformed EMTs and paramedics, and 2,000 civilian staff. The department operates under a paramilitary structure, currently led by Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, who succeeded Mark Guerra in January 2026, with an operational Chief of Department overseeing day-to-day response. Geographically, the FDNY is divided into five borough commands, further broken into nine divisions, battalions, and individual firehouses, where firefighters often work 24-hour shifts followed by three days off under a "mutuals" swapping system. Known by the motto "New York's Bravest" for fire and "New York's Best" for EMS, its headquarters is located at 9 MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, while its Fire Academy training facility sits on Randalls Island.