The ''John H. Glenn Jr.'' 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 equipme ...
stationed on the
Potomac and
Anacostia
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is na ...
rivers in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
[ Her bow was reinforced in 1984, allowing her to also serve as an ]icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...
during the winter.
The vessel served the New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...
for her first fifteen years before being sold to the in 1977.[ When she was built, she was both faster than her older fleet-mates, and had a shallower draft, making her well-suited to be stationed in a region of the ]Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
with areas of shallow water.[
In 2012, Washington, D.C.'s Inspector General published a report that the ''John Glenn''s maintenance had been dangerously neglected.][ The report noted that, in addition to not implementing a program of general inspection, the city had neglected to plan or budget for a replacement for the fifty-year-old vessel. The report listed hundreds of other municipalities who had been able to replace or upgrade their fireboats through FEMA Port Security Grants, but that Washington DC had not applied for a grant. The report estimated that it would cost $7 million to replace the ''John H. Glenn Jr.'' with an equivalent, modern vessel. In October 2014 the '']Washington City Paper
The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial mix is focu ...
'' noted that, rather than respond to the report city government had merely left the vessel at her moorings.[ Similarly, budget problems had forced the fire department to take half its fleet of firetrucks out of service, because it could not afford to keep them in running order.
]
Incidents
In 1982, the ''John H. Glenn Jr.'' and the city's other vessels tried to rescue people when an Air Florida
Air Florida was an American low-cost carrier that operated from 1971 to 1984. In 1975 it was headquartered in the Dadeland Towers in what is now Kendall, Florida in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Air Florida's IATA code is now used by ...
airliner collided with the 14th Street Bridge.[ Ice impeded their efforts. Seventy people died in the incident. Subsequently, the ''John Glenn'' was retrofitted with an icebreaking bow.
On January 31, 2009, the excursion vessel '' Spirit of Washington'' smashed into the dock shared by the fire department and police department's boats, damaging the ''John H. Glenn Jr''.][
]
References
External links
1962 ships
District of Columbia-related ships
Fireboats of the United States
John H. Gleen Jr.
John H. Gleen Jr.
John Glenn
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