For several days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, firefighters in New York City relied on two half-century-old fireboats for urgently needed water, as downtown water mains had been severed.
The boats each pumped 20,000 gallons of water per minute from the Hudson River to the wreckage of the World Trade Center’s collapsed twin towers.
Eight years later, New York City is replacing its aged vessels with a pair of fireboats that each can pump 50,000 gallons of water per minute up to five miles inland.
At 140 feet long, they are the largest fireboats in the world, says the manufacturer.
They have forward ballast tanks that can raise and lower the boats in the water to match the deck levels of ferries, in case one needed to be evacuated. The fireboats also feature pressurized areas that protect crews from biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear agents.
“It’s been exciting because of what these boats represent,” says Mike Yriondo, contracts manager for the Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group, which in 2007 won a $54 million contract to build the two ships. The Department of Homeland Security provided $40 million in grants, and New York City paid the rest.
The first boat, named Three Forty Three in honor of the 343 fire department members who died on 9/11, is scheduled to arrive in New York in December and will be stationed in Manhattan on the Hudson River.
The second boat, named Fire Fighter II, is scheduled arrive next spring and will be based on Staten Island.
“Clearly, history has shown that we are a target, so we would be in need of having these boats,” says Frank Dwyer, spokesman for the city’s fire department. “There are a lot of advancements that make them the best fireboats in the world.”