page_title: Fireboat
section_title: Government and military with fireboats
hierarchical_section_title: Fireboat / Government and military with fireboats
context_page_description: A fireboat is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipment.
  Older designs derived from tugboats and modern fireboats more closely resembling seafaring ships can both be found in service today. Some departments would give their multi-purpose craft the title of "fireboat" also.
  They are frequently used for fighting fires on docks and shore side warehouses as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. They also have an effectively unlimited supply of water available, pumping directly from below the hull. Fireboats can be used to assist shore-based firefighters when other water is in low supply or is unavailable, for example, due to earthquake breakage of water mains, as happened in San Francisco due to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
  Some modern fireboats are capable of pumping tens of thousands of gallons of water per minute.
context_section_description: Japan Coast Guard – 9; 230 patrol boats with water cannons or firefighting support systems
  United States Coast Guard
  Fire class fireboat of the Royal Canadian Navy's auxiliary fleet (2):
  CFAV Firebird (YTR 561)
  CFAV Firebrand (YTR 562)
caption: Japan Coast Guard patrol boat with water cannons discharging
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