Robert Tucker, a private security executive and longtime FDNY Foundation board member, will be New York City’s 35th Fire Commissioner, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday.
Hizzoner officially appointed Tucker — currently CEO of the private security company T&M Protection Resources, — during a ceremony at the FDNY’s Randall’s Island training facility on Aug. 12. Tucker will succeed Laura Kavanagh, the first woman to lead the FDNY, in the role after she formally resigned last week.
“Now we pass the button to a young New Yorker, to a young person who believes that this is the greatest Fire department on the globe,” Adams said of Tucker, who is 51. “We’re going to reach the level and the plateaus that’s reflective of this department.”
Although Tucker has never been a firefighter himself, he has long been involved with the department. He serves as secretary of the FDNY Foundation, the department’s official nonprofit, and held his first job with the agency in 1985 as a summer intern.
Tucker also worked as a special assistant to the Queens district attorney’s office during the Richard Brown era.
“I’ve been an assistant DA, I’ve run a global security firm, I’ve served on numerous boards including the FDNY and the police foundation, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I can think of no higher calling than serving as the fire commissioner for the City of New York,” Tucker said. “This is truly a dream come true.”
Tucker pledged to take on some of the greatest challenges currently facing New York’s Bravest, including lithium-ion battery fires, fentanol and higher temperatures associated with a warming climate.
Culture change
The new commish also appeared to commit to addressing the inequality that still persists in firehouses across the predominantly white and male department.
“Firehouse culture has come under scrutiny, it is important to remember that a house needs to be just that, a home for everyone who signs up for this line of work,” Tucker said. “I will work to ensure that our houses deliver the culture and experience everyone deserves.”
Andrew Ansbro, president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association, lauded Tucker’s “long and deep ties” to the department as well as his “great appreciation” for rank-and-file firefighters.
“From his early start in communications and his hard work and life-long dedication, which led to his appointment to the Board of Directors for the FDNY Foundation, his experience makes him uniquely qualified to understand the changes that could be made to improve efficiency in the department by increasing unit availability, which would lead to a decrease in response times,” Ansbro said.
While Kavanagh has attributed her decision to step down to wanting to spend more time with family, her less than two-year tenure as Fire commissioner was marred by battles between herself and some of the department’s top chiefs. She faced criticism for never having served as a rank-and-file firefighter herself, though she worked in the department as a civilian for nearly a decade, and was sued by one group of chiefs last year after demoting them as well as another group of former chiefs for age discrimination.
Kavanagh first stepped into the role of commissioner on an interim basis in early 2022, when her predecessor Daniel Nigro resigned. Adams then officially named her to the role in October of the same year.
The mayor praised Kavanagh for her tenure as commissioner, while recognizing that it was not an easy feat to be the first woman to lead the city’s Fire Department.
“It was a challenging task to be the first women to be a commissioner in the Fire Department,” Adams said. “And she stood up to that challenge and she leaned into some of the challenges. Everything from the battery fires that challenges the lives of innocent people to bringing on more women into the department.”
