The city’s fire department is set to get new leadership as FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh ended her historic tenure Wednesday. 

“It means a lot. We forget how rare it is to see women in positions of power and that’s something we all have to get used to," she said during an interview with "Mornings On 1."

Kavanagh was the first woman to lead the department. She was appointed back in October 2022 by Mayor Eric Adams. 

The commissioner leaves a somewhat mixed legacy behind. She spoke to NY1 about her time at the FDNY earlier this week.  

“It's so important that we not only get to that first but past that first and normalize women in positions of power," she said. 

One of Kavanagh’s biggest efforts was advocating for increased lithium-ion battery safety regulations, as the batteries became a leading cause of fires and fire deaths in the city. 

Last July she testified in Washington, D.C., before the Consumer Product Safety Commission, pushing for federal standards. 

“What we’re seeing is there’s just a constant flood of unregulated devices coming into the city and, in particular, these manufacturers are very hard to track down,” Kavanagh said in July 2023.  

A federal bill aimed at regulating the dangerous e-bike batteries passed the House in May. In 2023, there were 268 fires resulting in 18 deaths, according to officials.

“Time is of the essence, as long as these are flooding in on the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands and we can only confiscate them a few dozen at a time, we’re still in danger,” Kavanagh said on Monday.  

Kavanagh’s tenure was also marked by controversy.

The city and Kavanagh are facing a lawsuit from multiple former senior officials who sued last year claiming they were the victims of age discrimination when they were demoted by Kavanagh. 

Despite the controversies, the head of the city’s firefighters union had positive words for the commissioner. 

“She always met me face to face to deal with the issues. Many times we were on opposite sides of them but I always felt that firefighters got a fair shake with her,” Andrew Ansbro, president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association, said.

Ansbro said under Kavanagh’s tenure safety protocols for firefighters improved including during the process of clearing out fires, known as overhauling. 

“When a fire is basically out you have to tear apart the walls to chase down the fire. Historically members would take their masks off and do that still in a smoke filled environment,” Ansbro said. “Just recently they implemented a program where they are going to send extra staffing to see to it that firefighters will be able to overhaul on air, still get the job done, and they will be replaced when they run out of air.” 

Ansbro said increasing staffing levels to improve emergency response times is on his priority list for the next commissioner. 

“Sometimes you’re in one place when you’re getting a call from another and that’s really when the response times jump up.," he said.