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.
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.
The David Campbell Memorial is located in southwest Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, immediately south of West Burnside Street, which is the dividing line of the north and south sections of the city. The memorial is located on a triangular traffic island bordered by Alder Street. Southwest 19*^ Avenue on the west side, and a strip of landscaped park along Southwest I8”’ Avenue on the east. Although the strip of park is located within the triangular traffic island, it is considered a non-contributing resource because it was constructed after the period of significance.
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.
Discovery is a fireboat launched on the Columbia River in 2014. The Discovery is operated by the Vancouver Fire Department. The vessel can pump 3,000 US gal/min (11,000 L/min) for firefighting, and is the city's first dedicated fireboat.
As a major port a number of fireboats of San Francisco have been operated by the city of San Francisco since 1878.
Fireboats in San Diego have been operated on San Diego Bay in the San Diego, California, area since the early 20th century, as well as by the Port of San Diego since its creation as a quasi-governmental agency serving the entire bay in 1962.
Since 2002, the Department of Homeland Security has provided Port Security Grants to ports within the United States, to build fireboats. These vessels are thought to help keep the entire United States safer, because, in addition to fighting local fires, they are all equipped to help counter nuclear fallout, chemical weapons and biological weapons.
Harvest Queen was the name of two stern-wheel steamboat built and operated in Oregon. Both vessels were well known in their day and had reputations for speed, power, and efficiency.The first Harvest Queen, widely considered one of the finest steamers of its day, was constructed at Celilo, Oregon, which was then separated from the other portions of the navigable Columbia River by two stretches of difficult to pass rapids.
Portland Fire and Rescue, also known as the Portland Fire Bureau, and sometimes unofficially as the Portland Fire Department, is the principle fire suppression, prevention, and rescue agency of the City of Portland, Oregon, United States. The department is the largest fire protection and emergency medical services provider in the state of Oregon, responsible for an area of 151 square miles (390 km2), serving a population of over 635,000. Oversight of Portland's bureaus shifts among the five City Commissioners. As of 2023, Mayor Ted Wheeler has assigned the Fire Bureau to Commissioner Rene Gonzalez. The current fire chief is Ryan Gillespie, who replaced former chief Sara Boone after she retired in 2023.
During the early 20th century, large and powerful fireboats were operated in Duluth, Minnesota. In 1920 both the Duluth, Mesaba & Northern Railway Company and the Duluth & Iron Range Railway Company operated fireboats in Duluth, the William A. McGonacle and the Halle.
St. Francis is a fireboat operated by the San Francisco Fire Department on San Francisco Bay since 2016. Also known as Fireboat 3, she was given the official name on October 17, 2016, the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Local schoolchildren helped pick the vessel's name.
Imhaha was a stern-wheel steamboat which operated on the Snake River in the Pacific Northwest in 1903. The steamer was built, launched, placed in service, and wrecked within a single year. The rapids on the Snake river had only rarely been surmounted by a steamboat, and generally only with the aid of a steel cable for lining used to winch the entire boat upstream through the rapids. After only a few trips, Imnaha was destroyed in Mountain Sheep rapids, just downstream from the mining settlement of Eureka, on the Oregon side of the river.
The David Campbell was a fireboat built in 1912 for Oregon's Portland Fire and Rescue. She was a steam-powered vessel, built in a Michigan shipyard, disassembled, shipped in pieces, and reassembled in Portland. Her engines could develop 1,200 shaft horsepower (890 kW).
The Eldon Trinity is a fireboat operated in Portland, Oregon, United States, by the Portland Fire Bureau. She was launched in 2010. She is named after two children, Eldon and Trinity Smith, whose mother threw them off a bridge into Portland's Willamette River. Authorities recognized that the attempts to rescue the children exposed weaknesses in the city's rescue infrastructure. Eldon died, while his older sister Trinity survived.
The David Campbell was a long-serving fireboat built in 1928 for Oregon's Portland Fire & Rescue. She underwent an extensive rebuild, in 1976. In 2010 Portland acquired a new smaller, faster fireboat, the Eldon Trinity, named after the two children who were thrown off the Sellwood Bridge in 2009, when it took the David Campbell 44 minutes to get to scene to provide medical care.
The Karl Prehn was a fireboat acquired by the Portland Fire Bureau in Portland Oregon, in 1973.
As a major port, there is a long history of fireboats in Singapore.
Mountain Gem was a sternwheel-driven steamboat that operated on the Snake and Columbia rivers from 1904 to 1912, when the machinery was removed and installed in a different, newly built steamboat. Mountain Gem remained on the U.S. merchant vessel registry until 1922 or later. Although Mountain Gem was not abandoned until 1924, there is no evidence it was used after 1912.
The U.S. state of Oregon has an extensive history of firefighting.
