Curtis Randolph (fireboat)

The Curtis Randolph is a fireboat operated by the Detroit Fire Department.[1] The 74.58-foot (22.73 m) vessel was launched in 1979, and is named after a young firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1977. Mayor Coleman A. Young commissioned the vessel.[2]

Detroit fireboat Curtis Randolph

According to the Detroit Public Safety Foundation it is the "only Class A fireboat on the waterways between Chicago and Cleveland."[3][4][5]

The boat can pump 11,000 gallons per minute.[4] The Curtis Randolph replaced the John Kendall, an older vessel that required a crew of ten, including five men whose sole responsibility was to stoke the steam engines.

Detroit's economic decline has eroded the Fire Department's equipment maintenance budget. The Curtis Randolph was unavailable for much of 2006 due to delays in crucial repairs.[6] On February 19, 2015, Fox News's Detroit station reported that although in previous years the Coast Guard had moved the vessel from its mooring in the Detroit River in October to prevent ice damage, the board still had not been removed.[7]

On August 24, 2016, the Curtis Randolph was loaned to help fight a fire at a power plant in St. Clair, Michigan, 60 miles (97 km) away.[5][8] It was the vessel's most distant assignment. The boat's pumps supplied water to four fire engines. It took the Curtis Randolph four hours to travel to the fire.

See also

References
  1. "E-16 "Curtis Randolph"". Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  2. Port of Detroit World Handbook. Fourth Seacoast Publishing. 1980. Retrieved February 28, 2015. On July 2, 1979 the City of Detroit, under the leadership of Mayor Coleman A. Young, commissioned the most modern fireboat on the Great Lakes.
  3. "Fire Boat". Detroit Public Safety Foundation. Archived from the original on December 29, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  4. Dombrowski, Bob (2014). "38 Years a Detroit Firefighter's Story". Page Publishing. ISBN 9781628384178. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  5. Walus, Dennis (August 24, 2016). "Detroit Fireboat Provides Mutual Aid at Power Plant Fire". Archived from the original on August 25, 2016. On Thursday, August 14, the Detroit Fire Department authorized the response of Fireboat 1. Squad 2 was dispatched to the fireboat quarters to man the vesselt, and Fireboat 1 got underway for the approximately 60-mile trip upriver. The trip to the fire scene took about four hours for the fireboat.
  6. "Detroit's Fireboat Likely to Miss Fireworks Show". Detroit Free Press. June 28, 2006. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015. The Curtis Randolph has been out of service for months because of city budget problems and appears likely to remain that way for Wednesday night's show.
  7. "Detroit's only fire boat left remains left out on icy waters". MyFoxNews9. February 19, 2015. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015. Many insiders fault the department's leadership for not protecting this fire boat against the giant chunks of ice and frigid conditions, and not just for the citizens, but for Curtis Randolph himself. He is the firefighter the boat was named after. He lost his life in the line of duty in 1977.
  8. "After 15 Hour Battle, Fire Finally Extinguished at DTE Power Plant in St. Clair County". CBS News. August 12, 2016. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. 'At the height of the incident, every fire department in St. Clair County was involved,' said Jeff Friedland, director of Homeland Security Emergency Management for St. Clair County. 'We had mutual aid from Macomb County, Sanilac County, Lapeer County and also Ontario, and we also had assistance from the city of Detroit, their fire department sent their fire boat out to help us support water supply.'
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