Fire Engines Photos

Nice picture Chris. I just returned from London, and there is a huge amount of new development all along the Thames these days! Do you happen to know how many fireboats London has, and what kind of pumpong capacities they have?

We have two in Chicago, staffed by a small squad of dedicated marine firefighters and further manned as needed by my local station, Engine 13 and Ladder 6, who also constitute the CFD dive team. Fortunately, the fireboats are very rarely called out, but at least they are painted fire engine red!

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 July 2014.

London Fire Brigade currantly has two Fireboats, one in service, one in reserve, that replaced the London Phoenix and the Fire Hawk, these are 1999 built Alnmaritec Wave Patroller's "Fire Dart" and "Fire Flash", They have twin Volvo TAMD 370bhp engines, and are fitted with a 1800-liter per minute pump feeding two deck-monitors. They have a ramp at the bow that can be droped like a landing craft so extra equipment, crews etc can gain access. They have grey hulls and day-glow red cabins.

Added by Chris Stone on 20 July 2014.

Thanks Chris. Different cities' approaches to fireboats are just as interesting as the variety of land appliances they buy to meet their different needs.

The London boats' pumps seem a bit marginal to feed two monitors - some other European cities fireboats have 6, 000 LPM or even more powerful pumps with three or four monitors rated at 1500 or 2000 LPM each!

Another common role in places like Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and Antwerp is to feed land pumpers, so many of them they also carry a significant load of 110, 125 or 150 mm LDH for relay purposes.

You may be interested to know that 100 years ago the London Fire Brigade had four full-sized fireboats, each between 80 and 100 feet long, at a time when the wharves and docks all along the Thames were really busy!

Added by Rob Johnson on 24 July 2014.

Not sure about the date Chris: I was the marine engineer on board from 1986 to 1989 and we fitted a petter engined boom just aft of the recovery cabin in 1988. It gave the ability to squirt water directly downwards say into a burning lighter/barge etc when it was raised.

Added by Keith Wright on 29 June 2020.

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