MetalCraft Marine

From the City of Toronto here's a news release about their new MetalCraft Marine Firestorm 55.

Also here's an interesting Facebook video overview featuring Division Chief Rob Anselmi showing their new boats.

Here's a related segment from CTV News.

Text of the City of Toronto news release:

News Release July 4, 2025

The City of Toronto is enhancing its emergency fire response capabilities along the popular Toronto Islands and waterfront areas ahead of the busy summer season.

Today, Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik (Spadina-Fort York), and Jim Jessop, Fire Chief and General Manager, Toronto Fire Services, unveiled two new advanced boats with a ceremonial bottle break and an inaugural voyage of Toronto’s Harbourfront.

The two vessels will improve Toronto Fire Service’s (TFS) ability to protect life and property along the waterfront, Toronto Islands and nearby waterways. Both marine emergency response vessels are built for speed, agility and versatility, and will be housed at Fire Station 334 located on the Harbourfront. They are both equipped to operate in more shallow and narrow waterways that previously posed access challenges such as marinas and rivers.

New fire boat

The new 16.7-metre (55 feet) firefighting vessel currently named Fire Boat 334, is powered by twin diesel engines with jet propulsion offers both power and precision for rapid responses to fires, medical incidents, rescues, and hazardous materials situations. The vessel was manufactured in Kingston, Ontario before it sailed to Toronto.

Quotes:

“Toronto’s waterfront and the islands are loved by residents and attract millions of visitors every year. The new Toronto Fire Services boats will improve response times so first responders arrive faster in an emergency to keep everyone safe. Working in partnership with Chief Jim Jessop and Toronto’s firefighters, we are building a safer city for everyone.” — Mayor Olivia Chow

“These new boats strengthen the emergency response for the vibrant, growing communities who live, work and enjoy Toronto’s incredible waterfront and waterways, especially in our busiest summer months. This provides important piece of mind and increases capacity for emergency responders to be where they are needed, when they are needed.” — Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik (Spadina-Fort York)

“These new vessels represent a major investment in the safety and well-being of our waterfront and island communities. With faster response times and greater access to areas that were previously harder to reach, we’re now better equipped than ever to serve residents and visitors of Toronto’s waterfront. Whether it’s a medical emergency, a fire, or a rescue situation, our team is ready to respond quickly and effectively.” — Jim Jessop, Fire Chief and General Manager, Toronto Fire Services

From the 13 News Now with video, a nice overview of receiving new MetalCraft Marine Interceptor BD 10M vessels.

NORFOLK, Va. — Naval Station Norfolk gets some important new tools to protect the people and warships at the world's largest Naval Base.

It's a new fleet of Harbor Security Boats to defend the base's 12.4 miles of waterfront. It is a critical mission: looking out for the installation's 74,0000 people, 63 warships, and 188 aircraft from any waterborne threats.

Navy Masters-at-Arms will now be able to do so with brand new, state-of-the-art, 27-foot, V-hulled Harbor Patrol Boats. The goal is to detect, react to, and neutralize trouble more quickly.

"With us being a forward position on the waterfront, we can spot, initiate, and react to any kind of situation that might threaten not only the piers and the base itself, but the warships themselves, we're kind of like an early warning system in a sense," said Naval Station Norfolk Security Forces Master-at-Arms First Class David Harrington.

It's the first upgrade for these types of vessels in over a decade.

"It's been modernized, upgraded, has great sea-keeping ability, and basically with the boats on the water 24/7, after 10 to 12 years, they wear out. So, we needed new boats," said John Schmeckenbecher, Navy Region Mid Atlantic Port Operations Training Specialist.

Fellow Training Specialist John Garcia said the new boats make all the difference.

"It rides like a Cadillac," he said.

There will be 24 new boats in all, throughout the region.

The Navy said Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story are scheduled to receive their new boats before the end of the calendar year.

From the Capital Gazette:

"A boat on the Severn River engulfed in flames nearly crashed into a community pier in Severna Park Saturday afternoon but was blocked by Annapolis firefighters rushing to control the blaze."

Intercepting and physically moving a vessel while it's fully ablaze is an important capability to emphasize here. A pier fire is bad news.

ABC News Austraalia reports that a 40-foot boat caught fire in Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay on Thursday afternoon May 24th, forcing two people to jump into the water to escape the flames.

Army personnel who were training nearby assisted in pulling the pair from the water and bringing them ashore.

Fire Rescue Victoria's MetalCraft Marine FireStorm 44 fireboat was dispatched to the scene and extinguished the fire.

Miami Dade Fire Rescue responded Friday afternoon to severe yacht fire with their 2005 MetalCraft Firestorm 50. They soon extinguished the fire and then investigated for any injured passengers.

Miami City Fire also attended the scene with their 2018 Firestorm 50 and were on standby for Miami Dade.

Here is another view of the fire on Instagram.

Credit with thanks to Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service Assistant Chief Operations Connelly for the video and photos:

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services responded to the New Westminster Pier fire with their MetalCraft Firestorm 40 with twin Darley ZSM 3000 pumps.

You can see how well the boat knocked down the fire with their Elkhart Spitfire monitors. The boat was operating in very shallow water where no normal fireboat could operate.

By Dale K. DuPont on September 10, 2020, for workboat.com.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department’s two fireboats were recently called on for an unusual job — help save the sea life in Biscayne Bay.

Fireboats 21 and 73 spent four hours and covered about two square miles aerating a portion of the bay with thousands of dead and dying creatures ranging from pufferfish and eels to lobster and grunts.

The emergency aeration worked — for the time being. Oxygen readings increased by 30% directly around the boats and 15% about 100 yards away, according to Miami Waterkeeper, the environmental organization coordinating the response to the fish kill.

“It does seem like it helped,” said Rachel Silverstein, executive director of the group that’s concerned about water quality. “I hope we never have to do it again. What we need is to improve the quality overall.”

The size and severity of the fish kill reported last month appear unparalleled for the bay, Waterkeeper said on its site. The low oxygen levels were due to pollution from sources such as sewage leaks, septic tanks, stormwater runoff, and fertilizer overuse.

So using the boats to give marine life more oxygen made sense.

“That’s a unique scenario,” said Chad DuMars, vice president of operations, Lake Assault Boats, Superior, Wisc., which has built a number of fireboats. “That’s kind of out-of-the-box thinking, and I like it.”

Andy Alvarez, chief fire officer of the department’s marine services bureau, wasn’t aware of the boats being used for such a mission before.

“At the end of the day, fireboats are there to protect life and property and the environment,” he said.

The 55’x16′ Fireboat 73 and the 36’x15′ Fireboat 21 were built by MetalCraft Marine, Kingston, Ontario, in 2005 and 2006. Both have Hale fire pumps which can pump 4,000 gpm on 21 and 8,500 gpm on 73, Alvarez said.

At the end of the month, the department is due to take delivery of Defiant 50 X fireboats from Metal Shark. The 50’x15′ vessels with welded aluminum monohull design are being built at Metal Shark’s Jeanerette, La., facility. Projected top speed will be in excess of 45 knots. They’ve gotten a grant for a third 50′ boat which is expected in a year, Alvarez said.

The fireboat program also will soon have three Rapid Rescue Vessels (RRV) to serve the coastline and three airboats for the Florida Everglades.

The fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego is an ongoing and developing story.

Some news sources about this incident:

• @USNavy on Twitter
• Naval Surface Forces (@SurfaceWarriors) on Twitter
• NBC San Diego
• CBS News
• The New York Times
• And many others.

Here is some of what we know:

On the morning of July 12, a fire was called away aboard the ship while it was moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego. Local, base, and shipboard firefighters responded to the fire. USS Bonhomme Richard is going through a maintenance availability, which began in 2018.

The origin of the fire is still unknown and is pending investigation.

At least 21 people are injured, and there are no fatalities.

Jacksonville Fire used several MetalCraft Marine fireboats in response to a massive fire aboard the car carrier Hoëgh Xiamen at Blount Island terminal, which began on June 4th and burned through June 11th.

We have several photos taken over several days in our Flickr album.

The fire involved over 150 firefighters, nine of whom were hurt in an explosion on board.

First Coast News and Firefighter.com also have reports.

The Jacksonville Association of Firefighters has a fundraising site to help the injured firefighters in their recuperation at home.

Fires keep erupting in marinas around Miami this month!

Most recently we have two different reports from Rickenbacker Marina:

First from Local10.com: Rickenbacker Marina fire leaves 6 boats damaged with two videos and some interviews.

The second is from @miami_problems_ on Instagram which is cellphone video taken by free hands aboard Miami City FireStorm 50 Fireboat

Here's what's notable about the Instagram video.

Around the 3-minute mark you can see just how little room the Firestorm 50 has to manoever between the blaze and shore.

Low draft and jet-propulsion means the boat can get into tight spaces, in very shallow water, with phenomenal station-keeping capabilities. But still. Kudos to the helmsman on this emergency response.

Two MetalCraft Marine fireboats responded to an impressive fire at Crandon Park Marina on Key Biscayne, off Miami FL. Both vessels are MetalCraft Firestorm 50’s, from Miami Dade and Miami City. The Miami Dade vessel was delivered in early 2007, and the Miami City boat was delivered a couple years ago.

Three different reports:

From Local10.com: 6 boats damaged in fire at Crandon Park Marina with video and interviews.

“The main hazard when fighting the fire (from the) fireboat is our firefighters falling into the water,” Chief Fire Officer Peter Lugo, of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, said. “They might step onto the boat that’s on fire to get better access, the fiberglass could be brittle (and) they could step right through and get trapped under the boat.”

From 7-News Miami: Firefighters put out multi-boat fire at dock near Key Biscayne with video and photos.

“A Miami-Dade Fire Boat pulled one of the boats that were on fire out to the open area outside of the marina and anchored it and fought that one,” said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Battallion Chief Peter Lugo, “while the City of Miami boat fought the one that was still anchored. There was also a dinghy that was on fire. The City of Miami put that one out at the same time they were fighting the boat fire.”

From CBS Channel 4 in Miami: Fire Spreads To Four Boats At Key Biscayne’s Crandon Marina

Arriving fire crews found two vessels fully engulfed in flames. They immediately attacked the flames with foam in an effort to keep it from spreading to other vessels on the dock.

“A large sailing vessel caught fire, then broke loose and set another large vessel on fire, it then kept drifting to set a small vessel on fire, which burnt another large vessel,” according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.