Moose Boats Delivers New Fireboat to Alameda City FD
Vallejo ,Calif. boatbuilder Moose Boats announced it has delivered a new fireboat to the Alameda City Fire Department (AFD) located in Alameda County, Calif.
According to the builder, the new Moose M2-38 fireboat is the most powerful ever assembled, running on twin Cummins turbo charged QSB 6.7L 480HP engines with Twin Disc Transmissions and Hamilton HJX 29 waterjets. The boat can reach speeds up to 38 knots with a cruise speed of 30 knots.
The vessel is equipped with two large Darley 2000 GPM fire pumps powered by PTO systems that enables full control at the helm while flowing close to 5,000 GPM, an amount of water usually only seen in the 50 foot or larger vessel class.
The catamaran design allows for optimal maneuvering with lateral crawl to port and to starboard and with absolute stability. Included in the design is an extended cab for water rescue and dive team equipment and a separate navigational/comms station located behind the helm. On the port side, there is ample storage with a full 8-foot-long patient bench.
Instruments include: Four Raymarine 12-inch MFD screens with chart plotter/radar overlay, FLIR, Reverse Image Camera, ICOM VHF radios, Department Motorola radios and Auto-Maskin Engine Displays. As for night time operations, this vessel is equipped with thirteen 20-inch Rigid light bars casting over 15,000 raw lumens per light.
“This build was a real challenge, and couldn’t have been accomplished without great support from our vendors,” says Moosif GM Steve Dirkes. “Robert Bowe at Cummins really helped us through the whole build, and brought Auto-Maskin, MER Equipment, and American Vulkan to the table to help get this powerful firefighting system approved by all parties.”
Task Force Tips provided four monitors and ten handline outlets to complement two 4.5” threaded discharges and two 5” Storz discharges for large diameter hoses, making this boat able to pump water in any situation.
The Alameda Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the City of Alameda, nicknamed “The Island City” and is located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. AFD is part of the Alameda County Mutual Aid System in addition to working with the U.S. Coast Guard. Among the four Type-1 engines, two ladder trucks, four ALS ambulances and one CARE unit, AFD cross staffs their fire boat with a rescue unit, two water tenders, a dive team and an OES Type-1 engine company.