A fireboat is a specialized watercraft and 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 equipment.[1] 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 warehouses as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. They also have an unlimited supply of water available, pumping directly from below the hull 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. An example 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 (2.4 m3/s; 32,000 imp gal/min) and up to 400 feet (122 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.
Occasionally fireboats are used to carry firefighters, Emergency Medical Technicians, and a physician with their equipment to islands and other boats. Some may be used as icebreakers, like the Chicago Fire Department's Victor L. Schlaeger which can break 8 to 12 inch ice.[2] 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.[3]
Also hydrocopters, rigid-hulled inflatable boats, fanboat and even hovercrafts and helicopters 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 rigid-hulled inflatable boat or borrow boats from local rescue agencies (EMS, coast guard, military).
Contents |
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 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 pump was used to fight marine fires.[4] 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 fireboat in 1866.[5]. 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 steam pump supplying two large hose reels; one of these was replaced with a monitor, or water cannon, in 1900. Fire Queen served until 1922.
In the UK in the early part of the 20th Century the pioneering shipyards Abdela & Mitchell owned by Isaac Abdela (see 'The African Queen' Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Queen_%28boat%29) also built 'firefloats' such as the Salamander -
http://www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk/vessels/salamander.htm
During the Second World War, in case of an air-raid, four crewmen slept each night in the black hut beside where the fire-float was moored. However, the only major incident was an accidental fire in the Great Western Warehouse on the opposite side of the dock in January 1945. The fire started on a floor where breakfast cereals were being packaged, and soon huge flames could be seen rising to a height of 150ft. Salamander was quickly moved across the dock but she was not tied up securely, and when her jets were turned on, the reaction made her swing round and many of the spectators on Llanthony Bridge were soaked! Several land-based pumps were also in action, but the building was so badly damaged that all but the ground floor was demolished.
Gloucester Corporation eventually disposed of Salamander in August 1955, and she was converted to a pleasure craft. She was taken across to Ireland to cruise the waterways there, returned to England for a time and then went to Holland, where she was for sale in 2002. Main sources: Gloucester Journal 14 Jul 1906, 9 Mar 1907, 13 Nov 1909, 15 Dec 1917; Citizen 3 Jan 1945; memories of O. Cole and N. Firkin; photos G. North & O. Cole.
|
|||||||||||||||||||