Lake Assault Fireboat provides fire-fighting solution on Long Island

Lake Assault Boats, a leading manufacturer of purpose-built and mission-specific fire and rescue boats, reports that its fireboat serving with the Bayville Fire Department in Bayville, New York recently responded to a large structure fire involving a home located in an isolated village on Long Island that does not have fire hydrants. The fireboat, anchored offshore, provided an uninterrupted water supply to two aerial apparatus and pumpers on scene deploying handlines.
“When I raced to the firehouse, I could see fire in the sky off in the distance – that’s how big it was,” said Norm McCloy, marine officer of boat operations for the Bayville Fire Department. “When fire-fighters arrived at the scene, fire was blowing out of just about every window. We quickly set the supply lines from the fireboat to our apparatus, which were around 800 feet up hill from the bay, and they never lost water for the entire fire. That’s a first for us on a large fire like this. We have portable pumps we also usually set up, but on this big fire we never even put them into operation. Other mutual aid departments were surprised by the amount of water we were able to supply.”
The 32-foot fireboat is a landing craft style hull configuration that features a hydraulically operated bow door. The overall height is 13-feet 6-inches and the vessel includes a motorised radar arch to allow for easy passage under low bridges.  The boat is powered by twin Mercury Verado 250-hp outboard motors with digital throttle and power steering systems. The craft also features a full spectrum of electronics, including: a Lowrance HDS12 touchscreen with GPS, Sonar, Chart Plotting, structure scan sonar, 4G radar, and a remote controlled forward looking infrared system (FLIR).
“The bottom line is we fed every piece of fire equipment at the fire with our single Lake Assault boat, and I had the ability to pump more volume but it wasn’t needed,” added McCloy. “The blaze had the potential to be a six to seven hour event, but with the volume of water we were able to sustain we were home in three hours.”