Fireboats

From Citizendium - Reading time: 2 min

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A fireboat is a vessel designed to fight fires.

Most commonly they are found in seaports and riverports. Originally they fought fires solely with powerful water cannons. In the 20th century they began to be equipped to mix their water with additives, to make them more effective. Additives included agents to generate foam, make the water sticky, or change its viscosity, so it could be thrown farther.

Some early fireboats were equipped with rams, so that they could ram and sink vessels that were aflame, before they collided with other vessels and set them ablaze as well.

Fireboats are dispatched to fight fires on land, when doing so allows firefighters to reach areas not accessible from surrounding roads.

Many larger or older fireboats were equipped with fittings that would allow shore-based firefighters to attach hoses, in the event a disaster, like a bomb or an earthquake, had damaged nearby underground fire mains.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century all fireboats were powered by steam, and their engine room crew needed to be trained mariners. Later in the 20th century the use of internal combustion engines reduced the purely nautical skills crew required. Late in the 20th century shipyards started to build smaller fireboats which required maritime skills comparable to those required for pleasurecraft.

While the smaller fireboats enabled by newer technology made owning an operating a fireboat more affordable for smaller municipalities, many ports had less requirement for fireboats, since docks and shoreside warehouses were built of less flamable material than the woods often used in the past.

Following Al Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001 the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency began giving American cities grants to pay for or partially subsidize the purchase of new fireboats - provided those fireboats were also equipped to help in the case of attacks from nuclear weapons, chemical weapons or germ warfare - or from spills from toxic chemicals. Typically FEMA sponsored fireboats have sealed cabs, to protect the crew from fallout, nerve gas, biowar, or chemical spills. Typically they are also equipped with infrared or other sensors, that permit the crew to operate in heavy smoke, fog, or gas attack. The infrard sensors are also very useful in using heat signatures to find people who have jumped into the water, or fallen overboard.