It’s not your grandfather’s FDNY.
New York’s Bravest are increasingly leading the world in the use of mechanized firefighters to snuff out blazes in the Big Apple — and they’re sharing the wealth.
The department on Tuesday launched a three-day training class for area firefighting units to show off its fleet of high-tech smoke eaters that have become a vital part of the operation, showcasing everything from drones to forklifts to robotic canines that can go where no firefighter has gone before.
“They’re very, very robust,” Capt. Michael Leo, who heads the FDNY Robotics Unit, told The Post. “These were used in the parking garage collapse downtown. But where they excel is hazardous material situations, like lithium battery fires that we’re coming across more frequently.
“There are forklift robots which can lift a whole car up out of the way,” Leo said. “They can fall down a flight of stairs, fall off subway platforms. Both have happened, by the way.”
This week’s training, which will culminate Sunday with a 73-story stair climb between real life firefighters and one of the robotic dogs, is training departments from Suffolk County, Syosset and Mineola, as well as members of the NYPD, city Emergency Management and MTA Bridges and Tunnels.
The FDNY unit is now 11-years old, and includes four officers and 12 “pilots” — trained operators of now-vital drones and robots who are among 50 throughout the department ranks.
Drones are particularly useful, using thermal imaging technology to detect hot-spots in high-rise fires and even structural weaknesses in buildings regardless of smoky conditions.
“We still have a firefighter going up whose responsible for, you know, seeing what’s going on on the roof,” Leo said. “But now we’re also 200 feet above the fire, viewing the entire roof and we have a thermal imaging of what’s happening at the roof skin.”
A pair of $75,000 quadruped robotic dogs can also climb stairs in a burning building, fall several stories and get back up — and are able to turn doorknobs or flip valves in situations too dangerous for firefighters.
While intense heat can still pose a problem — melting chips and wires in the robots — the department’s R&D crew is always looking for solutions, officials said.
In a display on Tuesday, one of the four-legged pups also had trouble keeping up with Leo in a push-up competition on the training grounds — showing plenty of stamina but lacking the firefighter’s speed.
Nonetheless, the FDNY has drawn not only national interest in its mechanized members, and prompted departments as far off as Germany, Dubai and Japan to reach out for tips and advice, officials said.
“The FDNY is one of the leaders in our country for integrating robotics into their public safety programs,” Thomas Haus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology said.
“They’ve really been an early adapter,” he said. “This new facility they have here is really quite amazing.”
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