The head of the FDNY will step down in the coming months after two years in the role.
Commissioner Laura Kavanagh confirmed on Saturday that she intends to resign after Mayor Eric Adams finds a new commissioner for the FDNY, which is the country’s largest fire department.
In a statement, Kavanagh said it’s “time for me to pass the torch to the next leader.” She was the first woman to ever lead the FDNY, whose history dates back to 1865.
“I look forward to spending the next several months assisting the department’s transition in leadership, before embarking on my next professional challenge,” she said.
Mayor Eric Adams appointed Kavanagh to the role on a permanent basis in October 2022. It came after Kavanagh spent seven months as interim commissioner following prior Commissioner Daniel Nigro’s retirement.
Before that, Kavanagh spent five years as FDNY’s first deputy commissioner.
Since taking office, Kavanagh clashed with certain factions of the fire department — most notably with a group of three ex-fire chiefs in their late 50s and early 60s who sued her last year, accusing her of demoting them because of their age. The city denies the claims.
Recently, the city’s Emergency Medical Services response times have increased to an average of 12.81 minutes for life-threatening medical emergencies and 28.31 minutes for non-life-threatening situations, Gothamist reported earlier this month. Both times were the longest since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In her statement, Kavanagh called her time at FDNY an “honor of a lifetime.”
“New York City will always be the love of my life,” she said. “My dedication to the FDNY has never and will never waver.”
In his own statement, Adams praised Kavanagh, calling her a “trailblazer” who overhauled the FDNY’s tech infrastructure, protected members’ health and increased diversity within the department.
“Commissioner Kavanagh has dedicated her life to keeping New Yorkers safe and while we’ve made it clear that she could have kept this position for as long as she wanted, we respect her decision to take the next step in her career,” the mayor said.
Councilmember Joann Ariola of Queens, who chairs the Council’s fire and emergency management committee, was more critical of the outgoing commissioner, saying that “if there was one thing that needed to be fixed in the FDNY, it was her.”
“I can say with tremendous knowledge of many issues that Laura Kavanagh has proven that she should have never been in this position to begin with,” Ariola said in a social media post on X.
“I am glad that the administration has come to this decision before she was able to do any more damage to the men and women of New York’s Bravest,” Ariola continued.