Richard Olivieri, Battalion Chief (Ret.) FDNY

In January of 2003, Chief Olivieri retired after serving over 37 years with the FDNY. He had been a Chief Officer for 15 of those 37 years. As a Captain, he worked as a consultant for AT&T Bell Labs (now Lucent Technologies) teaching and training their fire brigade and instructing all of their employees in the use of various fire extinguishers available to them in their respective labs.

When he was promoted to Battalion Chief he was assigned to the 2^nd Battalion which covered lower Manhattan from Canal Street to Houston Street from river to river. Located within the battalion was a diversified section of the city with high-rise office and residential buildings, hotels, theatres, places of worship, courthouses, in addition to the commercial and landmark buildings located in New York City.

During the years he was there, Chief Olivieri operated at fires and emergencies in all types of incidents from subway incidents to high-rise building fires including major operations at the World Trade Center. Little Italy, Chinatown, SoHo and Greenwich Village are just some of the interesting areas which were in his response district.

In addition to his firefighting duties in the 2^nd Battalion, he was the Fire Prevention Coordinator for the battalion. These duties involved the supervision of fire companies and the recognition of serious building hazards. Chief Olivieri was responsible for assuring that buildings with hazardous conditions were entered into the FDNY computer program that alerted fire officers to these conditions whenever they responded to that particular building.

After a few years in lower Manhattan, Chief Olivieri was asked to take on an assignment to update the Computer-Aided Dispatch System (CADS). He devoted much time and effort on the new Starfire II system which would bring the FDNY’s computer system into the 21^st Century. The installation of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) by which all fire units receive responses by computer were part of this upgrade. In addition to overseeing the installation of MDTs, Chief Olivieri was responsible for creating the use of computers for fire reports, building inspection reports, hydrants reports and many other applications for use by the FDNY. He was also responsible for the training of all fire officers in the use of computers.

Since his retirement, he has prepared promotional exams for fire departments in the northeast area and has been a consultant for various firms. Chief Olivieri is a graduate of John Jay College and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Fire Science and Administration.

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