![]() On January 16th, 1865 a bill was introduced in the State Legislature entitled "An Act to Create a Metropolitan Fire District" which included the establishment of the soÐcalled Metropolitan Fire District, a Board of Fire Commissioners (appointed by the governor), and a paid department. There was a quick attempt by City Hall and the Volunteer Department to reorganize the department and correct some of the abuses, but it came much too late. This committee study and conclusions resulted in charges that the volunteer system was more expensive and less efficient than a paid department would be that the Chief Engineer was deprived of control of the volunteer department's finances (by a Democratically controlled City Hall) and that there was too much political involvement in the volunteer department. A survey of paid departments operating in other cities was undertaken. Republicans agreed to sponsor a bill in the State Legislature to create a paid department. ![]() ![]() There were many affidavits from police captains describing the "rioting, pilfering, public annoyance and sabbath desecration" caused by the volunteers. On March 17th, 1864 the Board of Fire Underwriters appointed a committee of officials from insurance companies underwriting fire insurance in New York City to "promote the greater efficiency of the Fire Department." The Metropolitan Police Department supplied quite a bit of evidence to this committee against the volunteers. This movement soon gained two powerful allies: the Metropolitan Police Department, because too many fire alarms resulted in inter company riots, and the State Republican Party who saw a chance to deprive the City Democrats of a valuable political weapon-the volunteer firefighters. ![]() During the final days of the Civil War, a movement to replace New York City's volunteer firefighters with a paid department was started by the insurance companies because they felt New York's ordinary fire loss was too heavy. ![]()
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