The New York State Association of Fire Chiefs is pleased to announce that Battalion Chief Robert T. Burns of the Fire Department City of New York (FDNY) has been honored with the association’s 2013 "Chief Fred W. Singer Fire Educator of the Year Award." The award was presented during the General Session of the NYSAFC 107th Annual Conference & FIRE 2013 Expo on June 13, 2013, at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y.

This award is bestowed in memory of NYSAFC Past President Fred Singer, a 40-year fire service veteran and champion of fire service safety, training, and education. It recognizes outstanding effort in emergency services education, and honors an individual that is a fire service instructor providing training within New York state.

This year’s honoree, Robert T. Burns, is a retired battalion chief from the FDNY. He served the FDNY for 37 years, the last 18 as a chief officer, prior to retiring in 2011. During his career, Burns spent 34 years in various field commands throughout New York City and also served as a safety battalion chief, haz-mat chief, and an original member of the FDNY’s Incident Management Team. In addition, he was an adjunct instructor teaching leadership at John Jay College and headed the curriculum development group responsible for designing and delivering the leadership modules of the FDNY promotional training courses for lieutenants, captains, and battalion chiefs. Burns served as the director of the New York State First Line Supervisor’s Training Program at the FDNY Fire Academy from 2007-2010.

Burns is a nationally certified fire instructor level II, and currently conducts leadership training workshops for career and volunteer fire departments around the country. In recent years, he has participated as an instructor at numerous conferences and educational events hosted by NYSAFC, including the Annual Conference & FIRE Expo, Company Officers Leadership Training (COLT), and Emergency Services Leadership Symposium, sharing his years of experience and wealth of knowledge with fire service personnel across the Empire State. Burns has also served for three years as a member of NYSAFC’s Fire Education Committee, which is devoted to developing classroom and hands-on training programs conducted by the association.

NYSAFC salutes Robert Burns for his dedication to firefighter continuing education, training, and leadership development.