About The Museum

The Museum opened as the Fire College Museum on Long Island City in 1934. In 1959 the Museum moved to a firehouse at 100 Duane Street in Manhattan, where it remained until the Home Insurance Company presented its collection of fire memorabilia to the city in 1981, making a move to larger quarters imperative. The Friends raised funds to renovate a 1904 Beaux-Arts firehouse on Spring Street, which is now the Museum's home.

Displays illustrate the evolution of firefighting from the bucket brigades of Peter Stuyvesant's New Amsterdam through the colorful history of volunteer firefighters to modern firefighting techniques and equipment. The building also houses a special memorial to the 343 firefighters who died on 9/11. A video room and a miniature apartment with an artificial smoke machine and black-lighted fire hazards are used in the museum's fire education program for school children ages K through 12.

The Museum attracts over 30,000 visitors a year, many of them foreign tourists, and, using light-duty and retired firefighter volunteers, conducts an active tour program for visitors in addition to self-guided visits.

In the Press
Visit from Astronaut
Visit from NY Rangers