FDNY Summer Boats Staffing

[Guest]

Got a question guys, where do the firefighters that staff the summer FDNY rescue boats come from?

[Guest]

Got a question guys, where do the firefighters that staff the summer FDNY rescue boats come from?

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From firehouses throughout the 5 boros. They area detailed to Marine Operations during the summer months. They must have some type of maritime experince or small boat experince.

Candidates are interviewed by the Marine Operations Executive Officer. After all the interviews are finished, he will sit down with the Chief of Marine Opps and make the final decision as to who gets into the program. The crowd of candidates for the program gets bigger and bigger each year.

This program has come a long way since its inception. They are finally getting decent equipment to work with and have made some great rescues over the past few years.

The Marine Division Company Commanders also watch this program very closely. This is the route many guys take to get permenant assignment to a Marine Company. The cream always rises to the top and by the end of the summer we know who will be put on the "A" list, and who will not return next year.

Hope the was helpful.

[Guest]

thanks for the detailed explanation. Any chance at some point these units will become full time year round assets?

[Guest]

thanks for the detailed explanation. Any chance at some point these units will become full time year round assets?

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These boats can not be in the water year round due to the ice conditions in the harbor during the winter months. The main purpose for the small boats is to deal with the large number of pleasure boats during the summer season.

Marine 1 has a small boat in service year round, but when the ice starts forming in the North river, it must be taken out of service. Marine Company 9 was the first company to have a small boat in service side by side with the big boat, but no suitable berthing area is available so it was taken out of service until safe accommodations are made available.

The Company Commanders of the 2 "big boat" companies (9 & 1) would like to see the staffing in their companies increased to a level where they can staff the small boat without compromising the manpower on the big boat. Marine Company 6 is the one company with a shallow draft 52' boat that takes up most of the slack during the season that the small boats are not in service. But their main boat the "Kevin Kane", due to its aluminum hull must also be taken out of service and replaced with the F/B Smith, an older steel hull vessel until the ice clears.

[Guest]

Its going to be nice when the two new boats come in!

[Guest]

Its going to be nice when the two new boats come in!

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Yes, these boats will probably be the most powerful boats in the world. 140' LOA (Length Overall) and 50,000 GPM. The main purpose of having the extended length of 140' is to increase buoyancy. This will enable the boat to get into the many shallow draft areas in our harbor and also help increase its speed.

The 50,000 GPM capacity will allow this boat to act as a portable pumping station for extended periods without over taxing its equipment. It will also enable the boat to undergo repairs and maintenance without going out of service. These boats, as well as the older ones currently in service are designed with redundant systems to act as back up in order to keep the boat in service when something fails. When a fireboat needs repair, it not as simple as taking an engine or truck OOS and replacing it with another one from the reserve fleet. The reserve fleet in the Marine Division consists of one boat, and it is older than any land apparatus in the FDNY fleet.

Two years go the F/B Fire Fighter (circa 1938) was reduced to 1/2 of her 20,000 GPM capacity in order to facilitate repairs to her pumping system. She remained in service during the entire process. By isolating the mains to 2 of the boats 4 5000 GPM pumps, the boat was able to remain in service and still pump 10,000 GPM if needed. At 10,000 GPM, she was still more powerful than most of fire-boats in the USA.

The ability of these large boats to act as floating pumping stations, and also as staging areas for Firefighters boarding ship fires will make them a valuable asset to the FDNY.

Edited May 19, 2007 by tw1981

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Those new boats are going going to kick some serious butt! By the way, any rumors on what the 2 new boats will be named?

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Those new boats are going going to kick some serious butt!  By the way, any rumors on what the 2 new boats will be named?

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I don't think that has been discussed yet, but I would love to see one named after Fr. Mychal Judge.

Also, one of these boats will be replacing the Fire Fighter. That boat was built by Mayor La Guardia who refused to name it after himself. In those days most of the boats were named after politicians, instead he named it the "Fire Fighter" in honor of all Firemen (He was a big Buff). Being that the Fire Fighter served the city so well for all of these years, maybe we should name one of the new ones after him.

just me 2 cents

[TL2L31 8]

I don't think that has been discussed yet, but I would love to see one named after Fr. Mychal  Judge.

Also, one of these boats will be replacing the Fire Fighter. That boat was built by Mayor La Guardia who refused to name it after himself.  In those days most of the boats were named after politicians, instead he named it the "Fire Fighter" in honor of all Firemen (He was a big Buff). Being that the Fire Fighter served the city so well for all of these years, maybe we should name one of the new ones after him.

just me 2 cents

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I agree 100 percent.

[Guest]

Me too.

[Guest]

Im sure it could be named after Ray Downey too.

[Guest]

Im sure it could be named after Ray Downey too.

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Yes, I am sure his name would be considered also, along with Chief Ganci's.

But, remember, these decisions will probably be made on the 8th floor of Metrotech or even at City Hall without much input from the uniformed members.

I believe that the last fireboat (F/B) named for a politician was the F/B Smith, named in honor of Governor Al Smith (still in service as a spare). I believe the first boat to be named in honor of a member who died LOD was the retired F/B John J. Harvey (built in 1931). Harvey was a pilot who was killed when the pilot house of his boat was blown off during an explosion at a ship fire they were fighting. The F/B McKean (still in service at M-1) was named after John D McKean, an FDNY Marine Engineer. He was killed in a steam explosion down in the engine room of one of the old steam powered fireboats.

Since then there has been the "Devaney", the "Ronaldson" and the "Kane". The Kane being the only one still in service. The other two boats were products of an administration that would not listen to the uniformed members when they were being purchased. They wasted millions of tax dollars on boats that were a total failure and only able to remain in service for a few months. An insult to the guys they were named after.

The "Kane" on the other hand proved to be a very effective boat.

Many cities have followed certain policies when it comes to naming their fireboats, Seattle for instance has given all of its boats Indian names.

Naming these two new boats will not be an easy task due to the large number of guys killed on 9/11, each and every one deserving the same honor.

Edited May 22, 2007 by tw1981

[Graham26 8]

Is there any site with photos of the boats? and Is there anyone here on the BRAVO that is in the FDNY Marine unit?

[Guest]

nyfd.com has a artist's rendering and nycfire.net used to have the deck plans but I think they got lost when the site went offline for a while. Don't know if they can still get them. There are certainly a lot of men they could be named after, Chief Bill Feehan comes to mind too.

Edited May 22, 2007 by fdny1984

[Guest]

nyfd.com has a artist's rendering and nycfire.net used to have the deck plans but I think they got lost when the site went offline for a while. Don't know if they can still get them. There are certainly a lot of men they could be named after, Chief Bill Feehan comes to mind too.

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fireboat.org is the website for the retired F/B John J Harvey. They used to have lots of links with photos of other FDNY boats.

Marine 6 also used to have a pretty good history page. I don't know if that site is still active..... and yes Bill Feehan was also a great man, the list would just go on and on.