Jerry Tracy

Jerry Tracy served more than 30 years with the Fire Department of the City of New York, retiring as a battalion commander. His assignments began as a firefighter in Engine 90 in the Bronx and Ladder 108 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As a lieutenant, he was assigned to Ladder 4 in Midtown Manhattan, and he served as captain of Tower Ladder 35 on the Upper West Side. He formed and became the first captain of Squad 18, a special operations unit and the only squad company located in Manhattan. Squad 18 responds to every fire and major emergency in their response area of Manhattan.

Jerry has developed numerous training programs, as well as refining and improving the manual, Firefighting Policy and Procedures, for the FDNY. He has authored and coauthored numerous articles for Fire Engineering, With New York Firefighters, and other fire service publications, as well as training publications for the FDNY. He was the catalyst for the research conducted by NIST, UL, and NYU Polytechnic Institute on smoke management and fire behavior in high-rise buildings, emphasizing research with wind-driven fires. He was a keynote speaker at the 2017 FDIC conference and received the Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award from Fire Engineering in 2016.