The FDNY’s new first deputy commissioner is a veteran firefighter who has responded to nearly every type of emergency — including three that claimed lives of New York firefighters, reports NY Daily News.
Bob Turner, 57, has worked nearly every job in the department during his storied 36-year career, and is now preparing for his new role as Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro’s second in command. “I think with my experience, I bring a lot to the table,” Turner told the Daily News on Tuesday.
That’s exactly why Nigro tapped him for the post. “I have known Bob Turner since he was a young lieutenant in Manhattan more than 20 years ago,” the commish said in a statement. “He’s an outstanding firefighter and a strong leader, and I know he is exactly the person our department needs to improve and move forward.”
Turner, the son of an FDNY captain, the late Robert Turner, said that along with working to preserve the department’s history of heroism, he’s aiming to become “intimately involved” in helping to diversify the ranks. He said that he and Nigro share a vision “to make certain that this job becomes representative of the city we serve,” referring to the recently settled civil rights lawsuit over biased recruitment methods.
Turner, who most recently served as director of the department’s First Line Supervisor Training Program, said strengthening the department’s resources was important to building the next generation of heroes. He said he knows firsthand how firefighters’ lives depend on cooperation in the field.
Turner arrived at the World Trade Center soon after the towers collapsed on 9/11. Months earlier, he was one of the first responders to arrive at what became known as the Father’s Day fire — a Queens explosion that killed three firefighters. And in 1998, Turner responded to a fire that killed two firefighters on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn.
Read more of the story here http://nydn.us/1pXgD9e
