Page 21: of Marine News Magazine (April 2020)

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FIREBOATS

Credit: Bill Ingalls, NASA sponse; rather, it defers to local ?re departments or to pri- example, requires ships entering U.S. ports to supply proof of vate sector hazmat contractors.] contracts for spill response and marine ?re?ghting.

In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security issued a DHS described a shifting demand for ?reboats. Local of?- “Special Report: Fireboats: Then and Now.” The Report has cials wanted smaller boats with ?exible capacities, ?re?ghting not been updated but a person familiar with the research said and hazmat response, for example.

the report re?ects trends and factors, still current today, about In Marine News’ December 2019 issue, Joe Keefe de- how or whether ?reboats can ?t within a ?re department’s ?eet. scribed how this shift in the ?reboat market has continued

One important trend in the report: big city ?re departments and grown. The Fire Department in Rochester, N.Y., for ex- had scaled back on ?reboats. Some boats were scrapped alto- ample, after ?ve years of analysis, contracted for a vessel to gether or mothballed or placed in reserve. Fireboat costs could patrol a range of locales, from a Great Lakes shipping channel no longer be justi?ed against declines in emergency runs. In to private marinas to industrial sites. Similarly, ?re services in many ways this was expected. After all, waterfronts were no Rabun County, Ga., purchased a vessel to patrol an 835-acre longer dominated by old ?re-prone wooden wharfs and ware- reservoir with 25 miles of shoreline. Again, versatile vessels to houses. Absent that threat, land-based equipment was increas- take on a range of duties.

ingly judged more valuable than ?reboats. Importantly, though, the DHS report also described two

Another trend: ships themselves, and shipping operations, then-emerging trends in American seaports. One was the huge had become much safer. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, for increase in mega-containerships and the port infrastructure 21 www.marinelink.com MN