The ''Curtis Randolph'' is a

fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipmen ...

operated by the

Detroit Fire Department The Detroit Fire Department (DFD) provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The DFD operates 47 fire companies out of 36 fire stations located throughout the city, with a total sworn perso ...

. The vessel was launched in 1979, and is named after a young firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1977. Mayor Coleman A. Young commissioned the vessel. According to the Detroit Public Safety Foundation it is the "only Class A fireboat on the waterways between Chicago and Cleveland." The boat can pump 11,000

gallons per minute The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...

. The ''Curtis Randolph'' replaced the ''John Kendall'', an older vessel that required a crew of ten, including five men whose sole responsibility was to stoke the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

s. Detroit's economic decline has eroded the Fire Department's equipment maintenance budget. The ''Curtis Randolph'' was unavailable for much of 2006 due to delays in crucial repairs. On February 19, 2015,

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

's Detroit station reported that although in previous years the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

had moved the vessel from its mooring in the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively refe ...

in October to prevent ice damage, the board still had not been removed. On August 24, 2016, the ''Curtis Randolph'' was loaned to help fight a fire at a power plant in

St. Clair, Michigan St. Clair is a city in St. Clair County in the eastern "Thumb" of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,485 at the 2010 census. The city is located on the St. Clair River near the southeast corner of St. Clair Township. Geography *Ac ...

, away. It was the vessel's most distant assignment. The boat's pumps supplied water to four fire engines. It took the ''Curtis Randolph'' four hours to travel to the fire.

References

Fireboats of Detroit 1979 ships {{Ship-stub

See also

References