The New York Firefighters Burn Center (by Nancy Dyer)

The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation is a non-profit organization of FDNY firefighters founded in 1975 and is dedicated to the advancement of burn care, research, prevention and education. Firefighters have a special empathy for burn victims and members of the Burn Team. No other group witnesses more of the devastation that fire wreaks on the human body.

In 1972, Firefighters Joe Hickey and Jack Meara were deeply moved by a news photograph of two Vietnamese children who had been severely burned by napalm. The men considered bringing these children to New York for treatment. To their surprise, they discovered that there were no medical facilities in the New York area devoted exclusively to the treatment of burn injuries.

Alarmed, the firefighters began working with physicians and other concerned citizens, and in 1975 established the Foundation. Thanks to the equal dedication of the medical community, the Burn Center opened shortly afterward. The Foundation flourished with the appointment of Lt. Jim Curran as President in 1983. The efforts of Lt. Curran and his dedicated volunteers brought millions of dollars into the Burn Center in the years that followed.

The goal of The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation is to make quality burn care available to all who are seriously burned regardless of age, race, creed or economic status. We support the burn center with healing & care research, the children's playroom, children's burn camp, skin bank and numerous other programs.

The Foundation is endorsed by both the Fire Department of New York City and our primary beneficiary, the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center's William Randolph Hearst Burn Center.

Telephone: (718) 379-1900; email: info@nyffburncenter.com; website: nyffburncenter.com

Contributions can be mailed to:
The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation
Dept. FSP
21 Asch Loop
Bronx, NY 10475