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 A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

, retrofitted with firefighting equipment. Older designs derived from tugboats and modern fireboats more closely resembling seafaring ships can both be found in service today. Some departments would give their multi-purpose craft the title of "fireboat" also. They are frequently used for fighting fires on docks and shore side

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of citie ...

s as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. They also have an effectively unlimited supply of water available, pumping directly from below the hull. Fireboats 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 The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

. Some modern fireboats are capable of pumping tens of thousands of gallons of water per minute. An example is Fire Boat #2 of the Los Angeles Fire Department, the '' Warner Lawrence'', with the capability to pump up to and up to 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. Occasionally fireboats are used to carry firefighters,

Emergency Medical Technician An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics are ...

s, and a physician with their equipment to islands and other boats. Some may be used as icebreakers, like 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 ...

's '' Victor L. Schlaeger'' which can break 8 to 12 inch ice. They may also carry divers or surface water rescue workers. Passengers from ships in danger can be also transferred to various kind of rescue boats. Rescue boats may be used also for oil and chemical destruction on rivers, lakes and seas. For example, the Helsinki Rescue Department in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland has different types of boats for various kind of firefighting, rescue, and oil destruction tasks. Also hydrocopters, rigid-hulled inflatable boats, fanboats and even

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull, or air cushion, ...

and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

s are used in fire, rescue and medical emergency situations. Cities with fireboats are usually located on a large body of water with port facilities. Smaller fire departments lacking resources will use a rigid-hulled inflatable boat or borrow boats from local rescue agencies (EMS, Coast Guard, military).

History

The first recorded fire-float was built in 1765 for the Sun Fire Insurance Company in London. This was a manual pump in a small boat, rowed by its crew to the scene of the fire. A similar craft was built in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

by James Hillhouse for the Imperial Fire Insurance Office in the 1780s. All fire fighting in Bristol was carried out either by private insurance companies or the Docks Company until the formation of the Bristol Fire Brigade as a branch of the police in 1876. In New York City, a small boat with a hand-pump was used to fight marine fires as early as 1809.http://www.fireboat.org/FEMAfireboatsthennowMay2003.pdf By the middle of the nineteenth century, self-propelled steam-fire-floats were beginning to be introduced. The FDNY leased the salvage tug John Fuller as the city's first powered fireboat in 1866. Prior to the "John Fuller", as early as the late 1700s, the FDNY used hand-pumpers mounted to barges and large rowboats. The first purpose built steam driven boats were introduced by Boston Fire Department (''William F. Flanders'') and FDNY (''William F. Havenmeyer'') in 1873 and 1875 respectively. The first European fireboat to appear in Bristol was the ''Fire Queen'', built by Shand Mason & Co., London, in 1884 for service in the city docks. The 53 ft. (16.61 m.) long craft was equipped with a three-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an ...

steam pump supplying two large hose reels; one of these was replaced with a monitor, or

water cannon A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining ...

, in 1900. ''Fire Queen'' served until 1922.

List of famous fireboats

* Abram S. Hewitt – FDNY (

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) (1903–1958) (retired and abandon at Witte Marine Scrapyard in Rossville, Staten Island). * Deluge – Fireboat/Tug (New Orleans) (retired) * Duwamish – (Seattle) 1909 (retired) * Edward M. Cotter – Fireboat/ Icebreaker (

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

) (active) The oldest active fireboat. * Tacoma Fireboat No. 1 – (

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

) (retired) * Fireboat 85 - Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (California). Located in 8th Battalion, Pittsburg Marina. * Fire Fighter – (NYC) 1938 *

Fire Fighter II ''Fire Fighter II'' is a Robert Allan Ltd. Ranger 4200 class fireboat put in service with Marine Company 9 of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) on December 7, 2010. The boat replaces the original '' ''Fire Fighter', and is sister to ...

– FDNY (

) (2010) the United States' largest fireboat (Active) * Governor Irwin – Fireboat/Tug (

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

) (1878–1909) Fireboat participated in

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...

and fire. (retired and scrapped) * Governor Markham – Fireboat/Tug (

) Fireboat participated in

and fire. (retired and scrapped) * – US Navy – Fireboat/Tug (

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

attack) and City of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

1940–1996 (retired and under museum ship restoration) * John Fuller – steam salvage tug (NYC) – 1866 boat had 2000GPM pump and hose. Considered first modern fireboat. * John Kendall – (Detroit) – Steam fireboat on Detroit River 1930–1976. (retired, scrapped) * John J. Harvey – (New York City) (1931–1959) (Temporary reinstatement

9/11/2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

) (retired)(Museum ship) *

Massey Shaw ''Massey Shaw'' is a former London Fire Brigade fireboat, named after the first Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw. Built in 1935 and decommissioned in 1971, the vessel was restored in the early 21st c ...

– (London, England) Serving in

London Fire Brigade The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865, under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. It has 5,992staff, inc ...

. Dunkirk Little Ship rescuing troops during Operation Dynamo (retired) * Phoenix – (San Francisco) (active) *

Pyronaut ''Pyronaut'' (originally ''Bristol Phoenix II'') is a specialised form of fireboat known as a fire-float. It was built in 1934 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Albion Dock Bristol, Yard No. 208. Registered number 333833. She is owned by Bristol Mu ...

– moored at Bristol Harbour Railway and Industrial Museum (

, England) (retired) * Ralph J. Scott – (Los Angeles) (retired) * Sir Alexander Grantham – (Hong Kong) (retired) * St. Mungo (fireboat) – Glasgow/Strathclyde (retired) *

Three Forty Three ''Three Forty Three'' is a ''Ranger 4200'' class fireboat that serves the New York City Fire Department as Marine Company 1. Designed by Robert Allan Ltd. and built to replace the 1954 '' John D. McKean,'' it was commissioned at 0900 on Septem ...

– FDNY (

) (2009) Country's largest fireboat, twin to

. (Active) * Thomas D'Alesandro (fireboat) – Baltimore (1956-2016) (retired) * Warner Lawrence – Los Angeles (active) * William F. Flanders – (Boston) 1873 * William F. Havenmeyer – (NYC) 1875–1901 (retired) *

William Lyon Mackenzie William Lyon Mackenzie (March12, 1795 August28, 1861) was a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, a term used to identify elite members of Upper Canada. He represented Yor ...

– (

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada) (active) * William O. Bird II – Sandusky Fire Department (

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Erie County, Ohio, United States. Situated along the shores of Lake Erie in the northern part of the state, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo ( west) and Cleveland ( east). Accor ...

) (active) * USS ''Active'' / USS ''Lively'' – US Navy – Fireboat/Tug (1888–1945) Fireboat participated in

and fire. (retired and scrapped) * – US Army / US Navy – Fireboat/Tug (1865–1922) Fireboat participated in

and fire. (retired and scrapped) * – US Army / US Navy – Fireboat/Tug (1861) Fireboat participated in

and fire. (retired and scrapped)

Departments with fireboats

Government and military with fireboats

* Japan Coast Guard – 9; 230 patrol boats with water cannons or firefighting support systems *

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

* Fire class fireboat of the Royal Canadian Navy's auxiliary fleet (2): ** CFAV ''Firebird'' (YTR 561) ** CFAV ''Firebrand'' (YTR 562)

References

External links

"Smoke Eaters On Water", May 1931, Popular Science
detailed article about New York city fireboats of that era
"Diesel Fire Boat Shoots Seventeen Streams"
''Popular Mechanics'', August 1937—i.e. article on Chicago Fire Department fire boat Fred A. Busse (fireboat)
Painting of the fireboat “The New Yorker,” 1893, in the Staten Island Historical Society Online Collections Database
* Book:
Fire - floats and fireboats
- David C Pike
type=Manufacturer “New type of fireboats”
{{Authority control Boat types

Boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on i ...