St. Francis
SF Fireboat 3
In October, 2016, San Francisco's new fireboat, helped the US Navy celebrate Fleet Week.

St. Francis is a fireboat operated by the San Francisco Fire Department on San Francisco Bay since 2016. Also known as Fireboat 3, she was given the official name on October 17, 2016, the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.[1] Local schoolchildren helped pick the vessel's name.[2][3][4][5][6]

San Francisco had been about to retire the Phoenix, its last fireboat, when the earthquake proved its worth.[7] The earthquake broke water mains. The Phoenix was equipped with extra fire-hose couplings, so her pumps were able to provide water pressure to a temporary network of fire-hoses, so local fire engines could fight fires in neighborhoods where the earthquake broke underground pipes.

Most of the vessel's $11.8 million construction cost was paid for from a port security grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.[2][8][9] Senator Dianne Feinstein attended the vessel's christening.[6] According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Feinstein was largely responsible for securing $8 million in federal funds to pay for the vessel. Feinstein reflected on how, during her time as San Francisco's mayor, some fiscal conservatives wanted to retire the city's last fireboat, Phoenix and how that vessel proved its worth during the Loma Prieta earthquake, when she was able to pump water to substitute for fire mains broken during the quake.

On May 23, 2020, the St. Francis and her crew saved the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, a World War II museum ship, when a major fire broke out on Pier 45, where she was moored.[10]

Specifications[1]
featurevalue
length88 feet (27 m)
breadth25 feet (7.6 m)
draft14 feet (4.3 m)
power750 horsepower (560 kW)
pumping capacity18,000 gpm

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Francis (ship, 2016).
  1. 1 2 "Vigor delivers new fireboat to San Francisco". Seattle: Professional Mariner. 2016-08-16. Retrieved 2016-10-16. The new fireboat, which has not yet been named, will be christened on Oct. 17, which also happens to be the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
  2. 1 2 "New Fire Boat Joins San Francisco's Department". KPIX 5. 2016-07-25. Retrieved 2016-10-16. A port security grant covered a majority of the $11.8 million to pay for the fire boat.
  3. ↑ Meera Pal (2016-04-21). "SFFD asking students to name their newest fire boat". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-04-21. Scanlon says the new boat will enhance the department's marine firefighting and response on the Bay. In addition to providing support for water rescues and protecting the Port of San Francisco, the boat will also be able to serve 'as a redundant water source for Fire Department engines in the case of an emergency, as it can pump water directly from the Bay.'
  4. ↑ Peter Ong (2014-12-16). "Meet SFFD's New Fireboat Technology". Marinelink. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2014-12-16. Surrounded on three sides by water with the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Golden Gate Strait to the north, and San Francisco Bay to the East, the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) currently relies on two old and refurbished fireboats, the Phoenix (built in 1954) and the Guardian (built in 1951) to serve as fire protection assets for the waters around the City.
  5. ↑ "Third fireboat to join city's legendary fleet". San Francisco Examiner. 2015-11-24. Deputy Chief of Administration Raymond Guzman told Fire Commissioners at a meeting in late October that the department may need to decommission one of the boats. "At this point we're going to have three fireboats for a while and we still need to determine whether we're going to keep two or three," he said.
  6. 1 2 Carl Nolte (2016-10-17). "SF welcomes new fireboat to fleet on anniversary of Loma Prieta". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-10-16. The new boat, painted red and white, will be the city's third fireboat. It was named St. Francis and christened with the traditional bottle of Champagne by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who helped get $8 million in federal grants, the majority of the cost.
  7. ↑ Cheryl Jennings (2014-10-13). "Lessons learned from Loma Prieta earthquake". ABC. Archived from the original on 2014-10-14. San Francisco is now building a third more modern fire boat, but still needs funding for more portable hydrants.
  8. ↑ Joanne Hayes-White. "New fireboat project" (PDF). San Francisco Fire Department. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
  9. ↑ Johanna Hayes-White. "San Francisco Fire Department: New Fireboat Project" (PDF). San Francisco Fire Department. Retrieved 2016-04-24. In 2013, FEMA awarded the SFFD 7.6 million dollars to fund the project.
  10. ↑ Bill Nemitz (2020-05-31). "Bill Nemitz: Long live the 'Lucky O'Brien' – the last of Maine's Liberty ships". Portland Press Herald. Archived from the original on 2020-06-01. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
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