Boston Fire Department News

A crewmember has died after falling overboard from a tanker vessel near Boston.A frantic search commenced shortly after 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday in response to a mayday call from the Singapore-registered MTM Dublin, which reported the mariner had fallen overboard.The man had reportedly been swept into the sea while a ladder was being lowered for the boarding of a Boston Harbor pilot, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.The search was performed in rough sea conditions near Boston Harbor…

Vallejo, Calif. boatbuilder Moose Boats announced it has been selected to build a custom dive boat for the Boston Fire Department’s Special Operations Dive Team. The model M1 will be 46 feet long and powered by two Cummins QSC 8.3-liter engines delivering 1,200 horsepower.According to Boston Fire’s Captain Doug Felton, “The Boston Fire Department is looking forward to upgrading our current Dive Team boat to a Moose Boats, M1. The M1 will allow us to operate a dive boat year-round, as opposed to our current seasonal asset.

A water taxi collided with a sailboat on a mooring ball Thursday afternoon near Long Wharf in Boston Harbor.Only one minor injury was reported, and the patient was treated and released at the scene.A U.S. Coast Guard Station Boston rescue crew along with the Boston Fire Department, Boston Police Department, and Massachusetts Environmental Police all responded to the scene at around 5 p.m.The water taxi had one operator and seven passengers. One passenger sustained a minor injury to his nose and was treated at the scene.

A U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Boston pollution response crew is responding to an oil spill from the USNS Fisher, drydocked at the Boston Ship Repair facility. The spill, estimated at approximately 11,000 gallons, is self-contained in drydock and there is currently no oil in the water. At approximately 9 p.m., Wednesday, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Boston received a report of an oil spill in the vicinity of Drydock Avenue, in Boston. Responders include a Coast Guard Sector Boston facility and pollution response team, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and the Boston Fire Department. Response teams placed 600 feet of double boom around the drydock to ensure no oil enters the water and six commercial vacuum trucks were deployed to clean up the spill.

City of Boston is purchasing a new state of the art fireboat with Chemical, Biological, Radiological emergency response capability for the Boston Fire Department. This new vessel will replace the current fireboat “FIREFIGHTER” which has been in service since 1972 and does not have the capabilities need for a modern emergency response fireboat. “Purchasing a new fireboat will greatly enhance public safety in the City and in Boston Harbor and I commend Commissioner Fraser and his staff for their hard work on this issue,” stated Mayor Thomas M Menino.

1914- International Ice Patrol Convention signed. 1961- During his inaugural parade, President John F. Kennedy noticed that there were no African-Americans in the Coast Guard Academy cadet unit marching in the parade. He told his speechwriter, Richard Goodwin, "That's not acceptable. Something ought to be done about it."  Goodwin called Secretary of the Treasury C. 1984-Coast Guard units responded to a six-alarm fire along Boston's waterfront. The fire began early on the morning of 20 January on the Boston and Maine Railroad Bridge directly behind Boston Garden and North Station. The Boston Fire Department requested Coast Guard assistance and MSO Boston coordinated the response.

Ribcraft, manufacturer of professional grade rigid inflatable boats for law enforcement, safety professionals, and military agencies, announced the delivery of a specialized 30-ft Ribcraft 9.0 dive boat to the City of Boston Fire Department. The mission specific RIB was delivered to the Boston Fire Department's Rescue Dive Team for search and rescue operations. Given the large active harbor with considerable commercial and recreational traffic, countless wharves and marinas, and many harbor islands and recreational areas within the city's jurisdiction…

1914- International Ice Patrol Convention signed. 1961- During his inaugural parade, President John F. Kennedy noticed that there were no African-Americans  in the Coast Guard Academy cadet unit marching in the parade. He ordered an aide to correct the problem. The aide contacted Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon and ordered him to admit African-Americans in the next Coast Guard Academy class. 1984-Coast Guard units responded to a six-alarm fire along Boston's waterfront. The fire began early on the morning of 20 January on the Boston and Maine Railroad Bridge directly behind Boston Garden and North Station. The Boston Fire Department requested Coast Guard assistance and MSO Boston coordinated the response.

Coast Guard Sector Boston coordinated the rescue of 65 passengers and five crewmembers from a ferry boat that had an engine room fire in Quincy Bay. The ferry boat Massachusetts departed Rowes Wharf in Boston Harbor and was south of Long Island Bridge on the way to Hingham Harbor when a fire broke out in the vessel's engine room . The ferry boat Laura was in the area and came to the aid of Massachusetts after its crew noticed smoke billowing out from the 100-foot commuter boat. The Massachusetts anchored in 21-to-26 feet of water while the Laura pulled along side and evacuated all passengers and crew. There are no reports of any injuries.

A tugmeet is bound to be a local event, as harbor extravaganzas go. For starters, how far do we expect people to drive boats, just for the chance to strut? Okay, hundreds of miles if they could, but the cost of fuel and time off from business are both to be reckoned with. Even when they do arrive from afar, local conditions define the event. In Boston, for example, a tugboat race would not be advised. It's truly a crowd-pleaser when a field of tugs, a dozen abreast, tears up the waters like a raging winter storm. But it's environmentally unfriendly on Boston's confined waters, and anyway, a race is not such a true measure of a tug. Tugs are built more for power than speed. At the Boston Tug Muster on August 17, it was the push-off, the head-to-head contest, that measured you up.

There was a tense moment at the Boston Tug Muster, held this year on the last day of May. At 10 A.M. sharp, the official opening moment of this 19th annual event, there were no tugs at the rallying point, Pier 4, Charlestown. At 10:05, still no tugs. By 10:10, only Innovator, possibly the shortest tug in town, had cruised by. It passed along the pier as if looking for old friends, and finding none, performed its trademark about-face and seemed to be departing. Maybe the gents aboard had got the date wrong? Last year's Muster, after all, was in August. On the pier itself, among Muster officials, a nasty question was starting to form: What if you gave a Muster, and nobody came?