MetalCraft Marine

The Florida Times Union website has some great action photos of their new MetalCraft Marine fireboat, the Jake M Godbold. Click to go to their online photo album .

About this boat, Firehouse.com reports that the New Florida Fireboat Makes Splash

Jacksonville Fire Rescue's biggest, fastest and newest fireboat made a splash on the St. Johns River on Friday as it showed off what it can do.

The 1,700-horsepower, jet-propelled fireboat is named for Jacksonville's former mayor, Jake Godbold, who recently got a firsthand look at his namesake boat.

...

"Jake means a lot to the history of this fire department. He brought this fire department to one of the top fire departments in the nation, so the only reasonable thing to do was to honor him with his name on this boat," said Chief Larry Peterson.

The Godbold is 50 feet long, weighs more than 50,000 pounds, spouts out more than 6,500 gallons of water a minute and is equipped with a night vision camera. "You can literally pick up anything in the water. Not to mention the bridges and everything else, but you literally can pick up a body," Peterson said.

Read the whole thing .

The City of Seattle has a nice web page about their new MetalCraft Marine Firestorm 50 fireboat.

They refer to it as their "Small Fireboat" but, of course, that's relative to their 108-foot "Large Fireboat" . MetalCraft Marine makes a full line of fireboats from 27 to 50 feet.

The City of Seattle also has a page of photos of its progress through construction , taken beween January and June 2006. Check it out.

WSVN-TV (FOX-News) of Miami-Dade: Fire rescue unveils new firefighting boat from Friday, April 13th, including video.

Also from CBS-4: MDFR Commissions New Fireboat :

The fireboat will serve over two million residents, 84 miles of oceanside coastline, 22 miles of beaches, 67 miles of inland waterways, and 5.5 miles of the Miami River commercial waterway.

We're sharing this assessment from marine surveyor Walt Wilsey of Alligator Marine of Norfolk, VA.

After the boat was raised, I inspected the engine room and found no physical damage or hull openings that would cause the boat to sink. However, the engine room bilge pumps were off when the boat was raised. All suspect items such as exhaust hoses, hull penetrations, scuppers and check valves seemed to be in good condition and functioning properly. No leaks were detected.

I spent approximately 30 minutes on the boat after it was raised. There was no evidence of water intrusion during this period.

Read the whole thing.

See also:

• Metalcraft Firestorm 30 Fireboat floods and partially sinks at Newport News, VA
• Newport News' Firestorm 30 is back at MetalCraft Marine.

MetalCraft Marine Inc. has signed contracts for three more of its high speed fireboats, worth $1.8M USD. This comes on the heels of a record year for the company.

The City of Miami has followed the lead of its neighboring Miami-Dade County FD, who just received a Firestorm 50, and has ordered a Firestorm 48. Between the two boats they will have massive pumping capability should there be a shore side fire or one aboard ship as the Port of Miami is an extremely busy port. Miami is the largest passenger terminal for cruise liners in the US. Both boats are fully equipped with medical equipment and Emergency Medical Technicians to handle virtually any emergency. Department of Homeland Security funding contributed to the purchase by the City of Miami.

The County of Prince Georges MD a suburb of Washington DC has ordered a Firestorm 36. This boat will vastly expand the department's waterborne fleet. It has an extensive night vision system to support security efforts on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge which is a major link to DC traffic serving interstate 95 to Richmond. It is also capable of charging the bridge's 1.5 mile long firemain system in a matter of minutes from a pipe connection under the bridge. This boat brings the number of MetalCraft fireboats in the DC area to seven in total.

The Town of Newburgh MD has purchased a new model fireboat from MetalCraft, as MCM is now entering the small fire/rescue boat market. It is called the Fire/Rescue 29. This new trailerable design still offers pumping capability of up to 1500 GPM and many rescue features like twin dive/rescue doors. Powered with large outboards it can run up to 55 MPH. The Fire/Rescue 29 boat will get a lot of attention when she is delivered later this summer. Newburgh is located on the lower Potomac River by the Route 301 bridge.