C M SQ page 29 Y K Page 29 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, May 24, 2018
811 is more than just a number It’s the number you call before you dig to have underground infrastructure identified – keeping you and your community safe. Once the site is marked, dig carefully around those areas.
The expanded and newly reopened EMS Museum at the FDNY training academy in Fort Totten features interesting artifacts and in-depth information about the history of municipal emergency PHOTO BY RYAN BRADY medical responders in the city.
EMS Museum gets expanded, reopened by Ryan Brady Associate Editor
This weekend, we honor the brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Thank you to the families of the fallen and to all who serve. Love to all and happy summer! Assemblywoman
Stacey Pheffer Amato STAA-073999
“As we celebrate Memorial Day, we remember the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom we hold so dearly today.” Assemblyman
Mike Miller 83-91 Woodhaven Boulevard Woodhaven, NY 11421 Tel: (718) 805-0950 millermg@nyassembly.gov
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The Fire Department’s EMS Museum at Fort Totten is back and bigger than ever, with a new look. And for the first time, the public will get a chance to check it out, but only today and tomorrow. That’s because this is EMS week. It is also expected to be open the same week in years to come, but otherwise it is closed to the public. Visiting hours today and tomorrow are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the museum, which is about 30 percent bigger than it was before, is free. FDN Y Com missioner Daniel Nigro joined officials at the Bayside park, which is home to the department training academy, to cut the ribbon on the new museum at a rededication ceremony last Friday. The center opened in 1992 but had to close down for a time starting in 2013 because of renovations at the academy building. Outside of EMS week, it is available only to trainees and officials at the academy. “It’s really great for the pride of our EMTs, our paramedics, to see how the EMS system in our city has evolved from the horse-and-carriage days to what it is today, in which they answer perhaps 4,200 to 4,300 calls each and every day,” Nigro told reporters after the ribbon cutting. The new museum is situated in a large room on the academy building’s first floor. It features historical artifacts like old airway kits, uniforms and drug boxes. There are also photos and passages on the
wall going all the way back to 1869, the year when the city started using horse-drawn ambulance carriages. Between that year and 1899, the workers were part of the Department of Public Charities and Corrections. Another part of the museum features information and photographs from 1929 to 1969, the period that EMS was within an agency called the Department of Hospitals. The medical technicians’ response to the Sept. 11 attacks is also documented in the exhibit. The museum was the brainchild of EMS Division Chief James Martin, a former graphic designer who worked with FDNY Capt. Jack Quigley to create the facility. The former designed it; the latter handled the building process. The two officials, who also worked on the museum’s expansion, were both on hand at Friday’s ceremony. “It’s kind of a parallel timeline where we show the development of the municipal ambulance service from the very beginning, but we also highlight some advances in medicine that impacted the delivery of prehospital care,” Martin told members the media. Historically, he added, the introduction of paramedics is “probably the biggest change” for city emergency medical services in the museum’s timeline. “Now, we are bringing the emergency room to the patient,” he said. According to Quigley, the museum getting more space allowed the Fire Department to put more educational components in Q the museum.
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FDNY commissioner and other officials rededicate it at ribbon-cutting event
Call 811 before you dig, not 911 after. It’s the law!