May 18, 2022

The campaign is a part of the City’s effort to educate more New Yorkers on fire safety and prevention following an Executive Order from Mayor Adams in light of the Twin Parks tragedy. More than 20 outreach events will be held throughout the five boroughs.

NEW YORK – The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) joined together at the Joyce Kilmer Park near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx today to launch a citywide fire safety campaign titled “Keeping Homes Fire Safe,” to educate New Yorkers on six key fire safety recommendations for residents and property owners. At the event, FDNY and HPD outreach staff handed out new pamphlets with fire safety tips and spoke with New Yorkers about the importance of self-closing doors and smoke detectors, among other important fire safety tips. The City expects to reach hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers through the fire safety campaign.

The coordinated approach delivers on a commitment made by Mayor Eric Adams in March to strengthen the City’s fire safety enforcement and outreach efforts in the wake of the tragic Twin Parks apartment fire in The Bronx in January. Since the executive order was signed, HPD and FDNY have partnered on the public fire safety campaign while working to increase interagency coordination and information sharing to prevent fires.

The fire safety outreach plan includes fire safety education at more than 20 public events already planned throughout the city, and that number continues to grow as the agencies partner with elected officials, other agencies, and local community groups to plan out the rest of the summer. The campaign will also include coordinated messaging on the web, a social media blitz, and email bulletins to approximately 35,000 property owners in the city.

HPD’s Outreach Van and FDNY’s Fire Safety Education Unit are taking the fire safety campaign on the road, bringing information and services directly to tenants and homeowners across the five boroughs. The teams will provide a wide range of information – from filing a housing complaint and applying for affordable housing, to valuable life-saving fire safety information, tips, and handouts. FDNY provides educational resources in multiple languages and giveaways that raise awareness on general residential safety.

Additionally, FDNY will offer residents the opportunity to sign up for free smoke alarm installations through the Sound the Alarm Program, a collaborative initiative between the FDNY, FDNY Foundation, and American Red Cross, which installs free smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in the homes of New Yorkers.

“We must work to equip every New Yorker and every building in this city with the tools to protect themselves from building fires, and today we are taking yet another critical step towards delivering on our commitment to do just that,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “This campaign will connect hundreds of thousands of property owners and residents to vital, lifesaving information to help prevent future tragedies. We will continue pursuing this necessary work because New Yorkers’ lives are at stake.”

“We were all struck by the tragedy of the Twin Parks fire. This education campaign is an important step to help ensure that we all have the information we need to prevent another tragedy,” said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. “Together, HPD and FDNY are working to prevent household fires. Paired with enhanced coordination on enforcing fire safety measures, we will equip New Yorkers with knowledge about preventing and containing fires to work to prevent tragic fires like the one at Twin Parks from ever occurring again.”

“Educating New Yorkers on ways to prevent fires and keep their families safe is essential to the Department’s mission to save lives,” said Acting Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. “Thanks to Mayor Adams Executive Order, this new partnership with HPD will expand FDNY’s fire safety education outreach, bringing this critical lifesaving information directly to even more residents across the city. More New Yorkers will have smoke alarms and will be educated on how to prevent fires, safely escape them, and stop them from spreading.”

The “Keeping Homes Fire Safe” campaign educates property owners about their fire safety responsibilities and reminds tenants what to do in the event of a fire while laying out precautionary measures to address potential fire hazards at home. The top six ways for New Yorkers to keep homes fire safe are:

• Maintain Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors. Working detectors are a critical component of fire safety. Property owners must provide & install smoke detectors.
Detectors should be maintained by the tenant including testing and replacing batteries.
• Close the Door. When escaping a fire in your home, always close the door. Closing doors saves lives. All residential buildings with 3 or more apartments must have self-closing doors; notify your property if they are not.
• Have an Escape Plan. An escape plan is important to keep you safe in the event of a fire. Property owners must post plans on the inside of every apartment door, common area, and distribute them to each unit, to new tenants, and annually.
• Clear Exits. Help your family escape from fire, and help first responders quickly access your apartment, by keeping exits unobstructed by clutter or storage on fire escapes, hallways, and entrance doors including roof doors.
• Keep your Kitchen Safe. Keep the area around your stove clear of towels, papers, and potholders. Stand by your pan, never leave cooking food unattended, and enforce a kid-free zone around your stove.
• Heat Your Home Safely. When using an electric space heater, never use an extension cord. Give space heaters at least 3 feet of space from combustible materials such as bedding and furniture. New Yorkers should contact the property owner of their building if their apartment door doesn’t self-close, they don’t have a functional smoke alarm, obstacles block their exits, or they don’t have the stove knob covers they need. If issues are not corrected, they can register a complaint with 311.

Fire safety graphic courtesy of HPD and FDNY

In addition to launching the outreach campaign with FDNY, HPD has translated its Ways to Keep Your Building Fire Safe document into ten languages and posted it on the web. In the coming months, HPD will create additional materials for tenants and property owners, promote the fire safety campaign on the web and social media, and begin inspections for important fire safety information that should be posted on the back of every apartment door, which provides information for the tenant about how best to protect themselves in a fire.

Additional outreach events will be held throughout the summer. For more dates and locations, please visit nyc.gov/hpdevents.

For more information on the fire safety campaign, please visit nyc.gov/keepinghomesfiresafe

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The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and educational programs for tenants and building owners. For full details visit www.nyc.gov/hpd and for regular updates on HPD news and services, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @NYCHousing.

The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the largest Fire Department in the United States and universally is recognized as the world's busiest and most highly skilled emergency response agency. The Department's main goal is to provide fire protection, emergency medical care, and other critical public safety services to residents and visitors in the five boroughs. The Department also works to continually educate the public in fire, life safety and disaster preparedness, along with enforcing public safety codes. FDNY not only responds to more than a million emergencies every year, its personnel also strive to prevent them by continually educating the public in fire, life safety and disaster preparedness, along with enforcing public safety codes.