Fireboat
Encyclopedia : F : FI : FIR : Fireboat
A fireboat is a specialized watercraft, often resembling a tugboat, with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. They are particularly useful for fighting fires on docks and shore side warehouses as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. As they also have an unlimited supply of water available, pumping directly from the harbor and can be used to assist shore based firefighters when other water is in low supply or is unavailable, for example, due to earthquake breakage of water mains, as happened in San Francisco due to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Modern fireboats are capable of pumping tens of thousands of gallons of water per minute. The most technologically advanced of these is Fire Boat #2 of the Los Angeles Fire Department, the Warner Lawrence, with the capability to pump up to 38,000 US gallons per minute (2 m³/s) and up to 400 feet (120 m) in the air.
Fireboats are most usually seen by the public when welcoming a fleet or historical ships with a display of their water moving capabilities, throwing large arcs of water in every direction.
List of modern fire boats
Asia
Hong Kong
- Fireboat 1 (Elite)
- Fireboat 2
- Fireboat 3
- Fireboat 4
- Fireboat 5
- Fireboat 6 (Excellence)
- Fireboat 7
- Fireboat 8
- Command Boat (CB1 and CB2)
- Diving Support Vessel (D1)
- Diving Support Speed Boat (DV2 and DV3)
- Speed Boat (SB1-6)
- Sir Alexander Grantham - retired
North America
Toronto, Canada
- William Lyon Mackenzie
Victoria, Canada
- Rocket
Langford, Canada
- #714
New York City
- Firefighter
- Governor Alfred E. Smith
- John D. McKean
- John J. Harvey
Los Angeles, CA
Perth Amboy, NJ
- Fire Marine 5
San Francisco
- Phoenix
- Guardian
Seattle
- Chief Seattle
- Leschi (Entering Service In Jan. 2007)
Historic Fireboats
See also
External links
- [Los Angeles Fire Department Fireboats]
- [Former NYFD Fireboat John J. Harvey]
- [Exciting stories from the San Francisco Fire Museum]: San Francisco Fire Department Fireboat Phoenix fights Marina District fire after the Loma Prieta earthquake; fireboat Guardian brought to San Francisco from Vancouver through a storm.
- [Puget Sound Fireboat Foundation], Seattle's Historic Fireboat Duwamish
- [MetalCraft Marine Fireboats] photos and videos
- [Model Fire Boats Website]
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