The New York Fire Department has a proud and famous history of saving lives and keeping New Yorkers safe, and the New York City Fire Museum celebrates that history. The location calls to mind early 20th century NY City at the pinnacle of its success, when rapid city expansion and meteoric rise in the immigrant population made firefighting more crucial than previously. The New York Fire Department Museum looks specifically at firefighting and how it has evolved through the years to what it\’s become today. From hand painted leather belts and buckets to helmets and boots and even old skool hardware, the Museum of the FDNY has everything you could ever want to work out if you\’ve got an interest in how the FDNY has changed and evolved over the years. If you are at all keen on the golden era or the history of firefighters, you can stop by the New York City Fire Museum.

The Fire Museum is found on the western edge of the hip Soho neighborhood in NYC. This hip neighborhood is more well known as a locale for eateries and shopping boutiques than as a hot spot for museums in Manhattan, but if you are having a shopping day in Manhattan and need to stir up the monotony with some history of NYC firefighting, all you have got to do is go west on Spring Street and it\’s easy to find the museum. The location is quite easy to get to, as it is a major shopping center for people from all around New York City, and a lot of different of buses and trains service both the Spring St. and Houston St. stations nearby.

The biggest draw of the New York City Fire Museum is the plethora of historic firefighting items like clothing, equipment and trucks from as far in the past as the 18th century. Those items includelanterns, leather buckets, axes, helmets and one of the first fire engines ever built, the 1790 \”Farnam\” engine. Rescue and breathing gear from the early 1900s is also on show, which gives a sense for just how dangerous fires were before the appearance of modern firefighting apparatus. The development of firefighting is told at the Museum of the FDNY, offering visitors the opportunity to understand what the life of a NYC firefighter was like and how it has changed through the years.

Also, a popular program for youngsters held by the New York City Fire Museum combines the history of firefighting with handy tips to know in the in case of a fire. This guided tour of the museum is provided by a retired New York 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 proper procedures to follow in a mock fire event. A house is set up to look as it'd if there were a fire, and youngsters learn where to go, what to do and what not to do. Fire risks are indicated, and escape strategies are practiced.