As an important port city,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

has operated dedicated fireboats since 1877. In 1986, the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' offered a history of Chicago's larger fireboats, when the

Chicago Fire Department The Chicago Fire Department (CFD) provides fire suppression, rescue services, Hazardous Materials Response services and emergency medical response services to the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chi ...

moved the ''Victor L. Schlaeger'' from active to standby status. According to that account, by 1908 the City was operating nine fireboats. However that was when many of the buildings that lined the waterfront were still made of wood, and by 1986 most of the factories and warehouses by the waterfront were built of concrete. Josiah Seymour Currey, in a history of Chicago published in 1912, listed five fireboats operating in the early 1900s. By 1986 the city had introduced smaller, less powerful fireboats, that required smaller crews, and did not require specially trained and certified mariners to operate them. When she was commissioned in 2010, the '' Christopher Wheatley'' was Chicago's first full-size fireboat in sixty years.

References

Chicago Fire Department {{Fleets of fireboats by city or body of water