MetalCraft Marine

City of Miami Department of Fire-Rescue has a new edition to their operations, a bright red FireStorm 48, ready to respond to waterborne emergencies within City of Miami waters as well as the overall region covering the Miami Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) under U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Deputy Fire Chief Brad Dougherty and MetalCraft Marine worked extensively and collectively in the design and construction of the new FireStorm 48.

The custom designed boat is powered by twin Iveco C-13's 770 hp @ 2300 rpm and 364 Hamilton jets putting out speeds of up to 37 knots. Twin Darley 1750 fire pumps provide an impressive water flow approaching 4,000 GPM.

The Vessel is also equipped with the Hamilton Jet - Blue Arrow system, a high level integrated operational control system between the water jets, gearboxes, engines and helm station. There are multiple levels of redundancy for safety. The highlight of the system is the "MouseBoat" maneuvering controller. A mouse similar to the mouse for a computer is shaped like a boat and located on a pad at the console. When the MouseBoat is moved in any direction, the boat will react accordingly for ease of maneuverability.

Additionally, the vessel is equipped with extensive operational components and electronics. Some examples include: NVTI stabilized optics consisting of High Resolution Thermal Imager, High Resolution 432X Zoom Color Camera, Ultra Low Lux Day/Night Camera integrated into Furuno large screen stations with Radar/Tracking, GPS Chartplotting, Dual Frequency Sonar/Sounder; Weatherfax; VHFs; Color Cameras covering engine room, decks and underwater; Underwater Lighting; Integrated Alarm Monitoring for vessel systems; 800mhz radios.

Fire Chief William Bryson and the Department are extremely pleased with the new arrival and look forward to providing increased levels of Fire-Rescue emergency services to the community and region.

Five years ago, MetalCraft produced the first FireStorm boat and has not turned back. Each boat having a unique and personalized flavor chosen by our customers. We have been designing and building boats, both power and sail, since 1978 and stand behind our 10-year hull warranty.

Here are rollover pictures for MetalCraft Marine Hull #507, a Kingston 50 being built for the Panama Canal Authority .

At MetalCraft Marine, we build all our hulls upside-down, and then we roll-the-hulls-over and then finish vessel construction right-side-up.

We use our outoor 70-ton crane to roll-over the larger hulls and we then attach the housings, which are built separately. This process is what's shown in the photos.

MetalCraft Marine will be building four such vessels for the Panama Canal Authority over the upcoming year.

There's been lots of coverage of a four-alarm fire last week in Portsmouth, RI at the New England Boatworks shipyard.

• Photos by photographer Phil Sullivan
• Providence Journal article
• Boston.com
• Video and video (including Lt. Joe Crowshaw)

Some of you might recognize the New England Boatworks : it's famous for building high-tech large racing sailboats including several for skipper Dennis Connor over the years..

Pictured here is one of three MetalCraft Marine FireStorm fireboats that responded to the call.