The Bronx has few of the office towers and hotels that make up most of the city’s Fire Life Safety Director requirement. What it has instead are institutions — hospitals and medical campuses, colleges and universities, shelters, and large managed residential complexes — and those already have fire-safety staff, an emergency management office and an engineering department of their own. A Dahlcore director in the Bronx is therefore usually not the building’s whole fire-safety function; they are one certified person inside a larger structure, covering a vacancy, a new building, a leave, or a post the institution has chosen to outsource. Dahlcore Security Guard Services is a licensed New York security guard agency supplying F-89-certified Fire Life Safety Directors, Emergency Action Plan Directors and, for shelters, F-80 Coordinators of Fire Safety. The company is veteran-owned, was founded in 2018, and is led by Ian Dahlberg, who brings more than 23 years of security experience; the Bronx is served from the Staten Island headquarters and the Manhattan office.
The Bronx Institutions That Fill the Post
Whether a building needs a Fire Life Safety Director turns on its height, its occupancy classification and its certificate of occupancy under the current NYC Fire Code. In the Bronx, the buildings that qualify mostly belong to organisations that already run fire safety for themselves.
Hospitals and medical campuses
A hospital has its own fire safety officer, its own emergency management office and a plan that covers patients who cannot evacuate. A Dahlcore director there covers a specific building or a specific gap — a vacancy, a leave, a new wing — under the hospital’s own structure, and is HIPAA-aware around the patients and records the post sits next to.
Colleges and universities
Campuses with residence halls, lecture buildings and a public-safety department that already coordinates with the FDNY. The director covers the building that qualifies — often a tower the campus added before its own department had the headcount — and works to the campus’s emergency plan rather than bringing a second one.
Shelters
The Bronx has a large share of the city’s shelter capacity, and shelter fire safety runs on its own FDNY certificate — the F-80 Coordinator of Fire Safety — alongside the fire guard and, where the building qualifies, the F-89. We supply the certified people for those posts and can shape the records to what a shelter’s DHS or funder file asks for.
Managed residential complexes
The borough’s large residential developments and the pre-war high-rises along the Grand Concourse, run by management companies that outsource the post rather than employ it. Whether a residential building carries the requirement turns on the Fire Code and its certificate of occupancy; where it does, the director is the management company’s certified presence on site.
One certified person inside a bigger structure
In a Queens office building our director may be the only fire-safety professional on the premises. In a Bronx hospital they are one of several, and the job is different because of it. There is already a fire safety officer who owns the institution’s plan. There is already an emergency management office that decides how an alarm is handled across a campus. There is already an engineering department that keeps the systems. Our director’s job is to fill a specific post to the institution’s standard, know exactly where their authority begins and ends during an alarm, and never be the reason two people gave two instructions at once. That is a matter of agreeing the chain of command before the first shift, in writing, with the people who will still be there after the gap is filled.
What We Agree With Your Fire-Safety Office Before the First Shift
Six things settled with the institution’s own fire safety officer, emergency management office and engineering department before a Dahlcore director sits at a Bronx Fire Command Center.
What the institution keeps
- Ownership of the institution-wide fire safety and emergency plan
- The emergency management office’s authority during a campus-wide event
- Inspection, testing and maintenance of all fire systems, through engineering and its contractor
- The relationship with the FDNY at institutional level and any standing arrangements it has
- Credentialing of our director as a vendor, badged and cleared to its own standard
- The decision on which building, which post and which hours we cover
What the Dahlcore director takes
- The F-89 post itself, during the hours the Fire Code requires it filled
- The building-specific plan and its upkeep, inside the institution’s wider plan
- Warden briefing and drills for that building, on the institution’s schedule
- Operating the Fire Command Center and the alarm panel during an alarm
- Records for that post, in the format the institution’s compliance office uses
- Being present for that building’s part of an FDNY inspection
Credentials a Bronx Institution Can Verify
What a hospital’s compliance office, a university’s public-safety department or a shelter’s DHS file will ask for before a director is cleared onto the site.
The certificate that matches the post
For a Fire Life Safety Director post, the F-89 Certificate of Fitness issued by the FDNY; for a shelter, the F-80 Coordinator of Fire Safety; and Emergency Action Plan Directors where the plan calls for one. We match the certificate to the post rather than assuming one covers all, because an institution’s compliance office will check exactly that.
A licensed agency your vendor file already knows how to process
Dahlcore is a licensed New York State security guard agency. Officers are registered under the New York Security Guard Act (General Business Law Article 7-A) with the NY Department of State, Division of Licensing Services, and their training is DCJS-approved. Licensed, insured and bonded, with a certificate of insurance on request in the additional-insured form institutions specify, and public verification of the agency licence at dos.ny.gov.
Cleared for the building they are covering
Directors are background-checked before assignment and can be credentialed to the institution’s own standard — badged by its security office, escorted where required, and, in a hospital, HIPAA-aware around the patients and records the post sits next to. They are certified in CPR, AED and First Aid, and trained to operate a Fire Command Center and alarm panel from the FLSD’s post whatever generation of equipment the building runs.
Records in the institution’s own format
Drills, warden rosters, plan revisions and incidents for the covered post are logged as they happen — in the format the institution’s compliance office already uses, so an interim director’s records slot into the file rather than sitting beside it — and attendance is confirmed with GPS and geofenced verification. A named account manager and a reporting portal login give the institution sight of it.
Covering the gap without leaving one
Most Bronx institutional bookings begin with a gap: a director who resigned with the replacement still in recruitment, a campus building that opened before the public-safety department had the headcount, a leave that leaves a post the Fire Code requires filled during occupied hours suddenly empty. The institution’s own structure is still there; what is missing is one certified person at one panel. The failure mode is an interim who treats the post as a shift — present, certified, and unconnected to anything around them. Our director’s brief is the opposite: fill the post to the institution’s standard, keep its records in its format, and hand back a building the permanent hire can step into rather than one they have to reconstruct.
Bronx Fire Life Safety Director FAQ
Answers for Bronx institutions and management companies. For what an FLSD is, when one is required, the F-89 credential and how coverage is structured, see our main Fire Life Safety Director page.
Our hospital already has a fire safety officer. Why would we bring in an outside director?
For the gap, not the function. An institution with its own officer still has posts the Fire Code requires filled during occupied hours, and a vacancy, a leave or a new wing leaves one of them empty. A Dahlcore director covers that specific post under your officer’s plan and authority, keeps its records in your format, and hands it back when the gap closes. We are not there to run your fire safety; we are there so a post is not empty while you do.
Our campus is adding a building before our department has the headcount. Can you cover it until we hire?
Yes, and that is one of the most common Bronx bookings. The new building carries its own requirement from the day the Fire Code says it does, regardless of your recruitment timetable. Our director fills the post from that day, works to the campus emergency plan and under your public-safety department, and when your permanent hire arrives they inherit a building with a plan, a warden roster and a drill record rather than an empty file.
During an alarm, who is in charge — your director or our fire safety officer?
Whichever the plan says, and the plan says it before the first shift. Where your officer is present, our director works under them. Where our director is the only certified person in that building at that hour, the plan gives them the post’s authority for that building and says how they escalate to your emergency management office. Two people giving two instructions at once is the thing this entire arrangement exists to prevent, so it is agreed in writing at the brief.
We run a shelter. Is the Fire Life Safety Director the right certificate for us?
Often not on its own. Shelter fire safety runs on its own FDNY certificate — the F-80 Coordinator of Fire Safety — alongside the fire guard, and the F-89 only where the building itself qualifies as an FLSD building under the Fire Code. We supply the certified people for whichever posts your shelter carries, and can shape the records to what your DHS or funder file asks for. Which certificates your particular shelter requires is set by the Fire Code and your certificate of occupancy; tell us the building and we will match the person to it.
Our building is a pre-war high-rise on the Grand Concourse. Does the requirement even apply to us?
That turns on the current NYC Fire Code, your building’s occupancy classification and its certificate of occupancy — the building’s own fire safety plan and the FDNY are the authority on that, not a web page. What we can say is that the answer for a residential building is not the same as for an office tower, and that a management company running several such buildings is better off knowing for each one than assuming for all. We will look at the specific building with you rather than guess from its age.
Our residential complex has several towers on one campus. One director, or one per tower?
It depends on how many Fire Command Centers the complex has and how the Fire Code treats each tower, which is a question for your certificate of occupancy rather than a general rule. Where the answer is several posts, one provider with one standard across all of them is worth having — the same account manager, the same records format, and a relief bench that can move between towers it already knows.
Our engineering department maintains the fire systems. Where does your director stop and they start?
At the panel. Inspection, testing and maintenance of alarms, sprinklers and suppression systems is engineering’s work and its contractor’s, under their own licences and contracts; Dahlcore does not do it and does not supply NICET technicians. Our director’s relationship with those systems is from the operator’s side of the Fire Command Center — what every signal means, what to do when one comes in, and how to communicate with the building. In an institution that line is usually already drawn; we simply stay on our side of it.
Can the same director act as Emergency Action Plan Director for non-fire emergencies?
Yes, where the building’s plan calls for one and the institution wants the roles combined. The Fire Code’s Emergency Action Plan covers the non-fire emergencies a building has to be ready for, and an EAP Director is supplied alongside or as the same person as the FLSD. In an institution the question is whether your emergency management office wants that role held inside your structure or covered by ours for the specific building — either works, and it is settled at the brief.
Where in the Bronx the requirement lives
The hospital and medical campuses of the central and north Bronx; the college and university buildings around Fordham, Belmont and the university corridor and in Riverdale and Kingsbridge; shelters across the borough; the pre-war high-rises along the Grand Concourse; and the large managed residential complexes of the east and north-east Bronx. In nearly every case the building belongs to an organisation with its own fire-safety structure, and the question is not who runs fire safety — it is who fills this post, under that structure, from the day the Fire Code requires it.
What Clients Say About Dahlcore
Explore real feedback from clients who booked Dahlcore to cover a gap, and on how officers conduct themselves on site.
“I want to thank Ian and his team of professional security staff. I needed assistance in a project I was working on and Ian came through in a pinch. His security officers were attentive and accomplished my goals with zero complaints. Thanks again.”
“Dahlcore security is amazing! They always make you feel safe but handle any situation in a discreet and respectful manner . Definitely recommend!!!”
“Very respectful in there they was very welcoming and I felt very safe you guys guards need a raise show me where I need to sign for that.”
Fill the Post in Your Bronx Building
Tell us the institution, the building, which post needs covering and for how long, and who in your fire-safety office we should be talking to. We will walk the Fire Command Center and your plan with them and put a coverage recommendation in front of you before you commit. Consultations are free.
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