How do fire boats work?
When someone says “fire boats” we often we think of the vessels that can draft very large quantities of water from the ocean or other bodies of water. These pieces of equipment can supply many thousands of gallons of water a minute. They can fight fire directly or supply water to land based apparatus. This is also often the generic name for any watercraft operated by the fire dept. It may be a small raft or outboard used for rescues or ferrying equipment to a location only reachable by water to a slightly larger boat with a portable engine pump up to an ocean going tugboat capable of pumping the equivalent of 20 land based pumpers. Barges or large rafts are sometimes used to carry several portable or trailer pumps ranging from 100 gpm to 10,000 gpm each, were used extensively in England during WWII.
