As a major port, the Philadelphia city government has operated multiple fireboats. [1]
image | name | launched | retired | gpm | notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Edwin S. Stuart | 1893 | ? | ? |
| |
J. Hampton Moore | 1922 | ? | ? |
| |
Bernard Samuel (fireboat) | ? | ? |
| ||
Delaware | 1950 | 6,000 | |||
Benjamin Franklin | 1950 | 6,000 | |||
Independence | 2007 | 7000 |
Philadelphia, commonly referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the second-most populous city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. It is one of the most historically significant cities in the United States and served as the nation's capital until 1800. Philadelphia is the nation's sixth-most populous city with a population of 1,603,797 as of the 2020 census. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the larger Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of the world's largest metropolitan regions with a "metropolitan statistical area" consisting of 6.245 million residents and a "combined statistical area" containing a population of 7.366 million residents. Philadelphia is known for its extensive contributions to American history, especially the American Revolution, and for its contemporary influence in business and industry, culture, sports, and music.
Edwin Sydney Stuart was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Philadelphia from 1891 to 1895 and as the 24th governor of Pennsylvania from 1907 to 1911.
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 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.
Independence National Historical Park is a federally protected historic district in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution and the nation's founding history. Administered by the National Park Service, the 55-acre (22 ha) park comprises many of Philadelphia's most-visited historic sites within the Old City and Society Hill neighborhoods. The park has been nicknamed "America's most historic square mile" because of its abundance of historic landmarks.
Joseph Hampton Moore was the 108th and 111th Mayor of Philadelphia and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
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 the fireboat Three Forty Three which serves with Marine Company 1.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge and known locally as the Ben Franklin Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority, it is one of four primary vehicular bridges between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, along with the Betsy Ross, Walt Whitman, and Tacony-Palmyra bridges. It carries Interstate 676/U.S. Route 30, pedestrians/cyclists, and the PATCO Speedline.
The Alki is a fireboat noted for its long service in Seattle, Washington. The boat was built in 1927 and is 123 feet (37 m) long. She was Seattle's third fireboat. She was built with gasoline engines, which were replaced with diesels in 1947. The new engine retrofit allowed the Alki to increase its pumping capacity from 12,000 gallons per minute to 16,200 gallons per minute. She replaced the Snoqualmie, Seattle's first fireboat.
As an important river port, there has been six fireboats operated by the Detroit Fire Department.
The Christopher Wheatley is a fireboat delivered to the Chicago Fire Department in 2011. When she was delivered in April 2011, she was the first new fireboat to serve the city in sixty years. She replaced the Victor L. Schlaeger.
The Port of Paulsboro is located on the Delaware River and Mantua Creek in and around Paulsboro, in Gloucester County, New Jersey, approximately 78 miles (126 km) from the Atlantic Ocean. Traditionally one of the nation's busiest for marine transfer operations, notably for crude oil and petroleum products, such as jet fuel and asphalt, it is a port of entry with several facilities within a foreign trade zone.
The City of Long Beach, California started to operate a new fireboat, now known as the Protector, in May 2014. The vessel was known as Fireboat 20, until she was officially commissioned, on June 8, 2016. A sister ship will follow within a year. The two new vessels will replace the Challenger and the Liberty, commissioned in 1987. The earlier vessels had a troubled maintenance record. She will be one of the most powerful fireboats in the world.
The Long Beach Fire Department of the city of Long Beach, California owns and operates Fireboats in Long Beach, providing fire protection and rescue services for the Port of Long Beach and the marina and beach areas of the city of Long Beach Although administered separately, the port facilities of Los Angeles and Long Beach are adjacent, and together, form one of the largest container ports in the world. The cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach have a mutual aid arrangement where one will loan fireboats to the other in case of need.
Because water transport is an important industry on the rivers of the Mississippi River system, there are a number of fireboats on the Mississippi River system.
The Iron Guppy is a tugboat, built in 2016, and owned and operated by Ports Toronto. She replaced the William Rest, a tugboat that served in Ports Toronto, and its predecessor agencies, since 1961. The Iron Guppy has very similar operational characteristics as the William Rest, however, with modern electronics.
The Philadelphia Fire Department started operating the fireboat Independence in 2007. The vessel cost $5 million, $4.5 million of which came from a FEMA Port Security Grant.
The Port of Chester is an American port on the west bank of the Delaware River in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Centered around Chester it ranges into Marcus Hook to the south and Eddystone to the north. It is part of the Delaware Valley port complex and lies between the Port of Wilmington and the Port of Philadelphia. Traditionally, shipbuilding and later automobile assembly were the mainstays of the port. It has since given way to other manufacturing and recreational activities, with Penn Terminals the only traditional maritime facility.
As a major port, there is a long history of fireboats in Singapore.
The Howard T. Tellepsen was a fireboat operated by the Houston Port Authority from 1983 to 2014. She and her sister ship, the J.S. Bracewell, replaced the Port authority's second fireboat, the Captain Crotty, which had been in service since 1950. They joined the Captain J.L. Farnsworth, which had been in service since 1973.
Vigilance is a fireboat operated by Long Beach, California. It is the second of two large fireboats Long Beach commissioned and the largest on North America's West Coast.
For example, the Port of Philadelphia is the sixth busiest port in the United States with over 2,700 ports of call made annually by commercial vessels. Yet their fireboats average only one response every two weeks.
The Independence is the PFD's newest fireboat and was put into service in 2007 but this new boat's design does not waver much from the original fireboat, the Edwin S. Stuart, which was put into service in 1893.
The Franklin and the Delaware are sister ships built in 1950 at RTC shipbuilding in Camden, NJ.
This new fast response, shallow-draft fireboat, which is of all-welded aluminium construction, is designed to specifically address the fire fighting and rescue needs of the Philadelphia region waterfront.