Fire and Rescue Boats
Living on the Columbia River we see a lot of Fire and Rescue boats. The cities and counties of Portland and Vancouver, as well as the PDX Airport and Coast Guard have patrol boats, as well. Here’s a quick review of fire and rescue boats in the region.
Portland Fire Boats
Our Hayden Island Fire Station (Station #17) serves Hayden Island, East Columbia and Bridgeton neighborhoods. It includes one company officer, one Harbor pilot, one engineer, and one firefighter paramedic. The non-emergency number is (503) 823-3700 [Request Station 17].
Their fireboats, Fireboat 17 and Rescue Boat 17, are docked on Hayden Bay with quick access to the Columbia River. These boats are staffed by the crew from Fire Station #17, at 848 North Tomahawk Island Drive, located about a 1/2 mile east of the I-5 bridge. Two of the newer boats are docked near the Columbia, while a third fireboat is docked behind the Fire Station, for incidents on the southern side of the island.
The Red boat is their Fireboat. Fireboat 17 is one of two twin boats built by Oregon Iron Works in 2015 and is 55′.
The silver one is the Rescue Boat. Rescue Boat 17 is a Munson 32′ landing craft style boat with a bow that can be lowered as a loading ramp.
Downtown, on the east of the Hawthorne Bridge, Portland’s Fire Station 21 houses a similar pair of both Fire Boat and Rescue Boat. Their Eldon Trinity Rescue Boat, is named after two children, Eldon and Trinity Smith, whose mother threw them off a bridge into Portland’s Willamette River. Station 21’s Fireboat is a twin of our fireboat, built by Oregon Iron works (now Vigor). The largest and oldest of Portland’s fireboats is the “David Campbell”, also known as Fireboat 6. It can pump over 12,000 gpm. That’s the one you see welcoming the Rose Festival Fleet.
Hayden Island Fire Station #17, operates Fire Truck #17, a spare engine, and also another “older” Fireboat 17 which is moored behind the station. The older Fireboat 17, the “Vernon R. Buss”, is a 42′ aluminum vessel built in 1996 by Rozema Boat Works. Vernon R Buss was a retired Portland Battalion Chief.
Vancouver Fire Boats
The Vancouver Fire Boat, Discovery (video), is a quick response vessel that was acquired through a $2.7 million federal Port Security grant that provided fireboats for Vancouver, Ridgefield and Astoria. The flexible (both fire and rescue) boat is docked at a cove at SE Marine Park Way, just off the Columbia River near the old Christenson Boat Works. Their 46′ long fireboat “Discovery” was built by Munson Boats in 2014. It’s staffed by the Vancouver, WA FD as needed.
The vessel can pump 3,000 US gal/min for firefighting, and is the city’s first dedicated fireboat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfOvnTL0t8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-va1Fmy1Mk
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Clark County (Ridgefield) Fire Boats
Clark County, also operates a fireboat from the Lake River near Ridgefield, several miles downstream from Vancouver. Clark County’s 30 foot Fireboat 24, aka “Mary Firstenburg”, is a Sounder model vessel built by North River Boats in 2014 with twin Yamaha 300 HP outboards can move it at 40 knots.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office patrols 44 miles of the Columbia River, 25 miles of smaller rivers and lakes, and Yale and Merwin reservoirs. It also enforces boating rules and regulations, investigation of boating accidents, water search and rescue, identifying navigational hazards, and works closely with local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and U.S. Power Squadrons to provide boating education.
https://clark.wa.gov/sheriff/marine-patrol
https://www.columbian.com/news/2015/oct/06/sheriffs-office-marine-unit-deputy-earn-honors/
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OTHER PATROL AND RESCUE BOATS:
Port of Portland fire-rescue boat.
The Port of Portland also operates a 27′ fire-rescue boat at the Gleason Boat Ramp off of NE Marine Drive, near 33rd Avenue. Rescue Boat 80 is a North River Almar jet drive aluminum boat capable of about 250 gpm.
https://www.portofportland.com/PublicSafety/Fire
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Multnomah County Sheriff’s Patrol Boat
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Patrol Boat (not a fire boat), is moored near the James Gleason Boat Ramp, near 33rd and Marine Drive. The Multnomah County Sheriff’s River Patrol Unit collaborates with the Port of Portland and the U.S. Coast Guard to provide safe commercial and recreational access and passage to the County’s 110 miles of waterways along the Columbia River, Willamette River, Sandy River and the Multnomah Channel.
The River Patrol Unit is challenged with addressing the abandoned and derelict vessels in the waterways of Multnomah County. The Oregon Marine Board contributes approximately one third of the funding needs for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office River Patrol.
https://www.multco.us/buildings/river-patrol-columbia
https://www.countyoffice.org/multnomah-county-sheriffs-office-columbia-river-patrol-office-portland-or-aaf/
https://www.oregon.gov/osmb/pages/index.aspx
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The Clark County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit patrols 44 miles of the Columbia River, 25 miles of smaller rivers and lakes, and Yale and Merwin reservoirs (video).
It also enforces boating rules and regulations, investigation of boating accidents, water search and rescue and works closely with local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and U.S. Power Squadrons to provide boating education.
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US Coast Guard Patrol Boats
The Coast Guard Patrol Boats are moored at Swan Island, near the bank by the University of Portland.
District 13 is divided into three Sectors – Puget Sound (Seattle), Columbia River (Astoria), and North Bend. Station Portland is on the Willamette across from Swan Island and below the University of Portland. Their area of responsibility is the Columbia River (from Puget Island to Snake River) and on the Willamette River (to mile marker 183).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Guard_District_13
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River
https://www.pacificarea.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/District-13/Units/Sector-North-Bend/
https://www.pacificarea.uscg.mil/Portals/8/District_13/lib/doc/factsheet/station_portland.pdf
https://m.facebook.com/StationPortland/
https://www.pacificarea.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/District-13/Units/
https://bikeportland.org/2013/03/15/first-look-new-waud-bluff-trail-connects-north-portland-to-swan-island-84300
https://goo.gl/maps/DxkhxQLLoMzrZGKJ9
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Portland Fire has additional depth with two boat crews up the Willamette River at Station 6 and Station 21, notes Tom O’Connor, who works for the Vancouver Fire Department.
“If the Engine 17 crew on Hayden Island is busy and not available to staff the boat, a crew from one of those stations can drive up and get underway on one of the Station 17 boats, a good option if the emergency require Station 17 to respond on land with their fire engine (like the Sundance boat storage fire).”
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Multnomah and Clark County are composed of different Fire Districts.
https://www.cityofvancouver.us/fire/
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/fire/
Here’s a list of all the fire stations in Multnomah County
https://www.countyoffice.org/or-multnomah-county-fire-departments/
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Portland’s fire department has its origins in 1850 when Oregonian editor Thomas Dryer began writing editorials about the need for a volunteer firefighting force. He took matters into his own hands, recruiting a group of 37 men to volunteer for the first firefighting company in Portland. It became known as Pioneer Fire Engine Company No. 1.