Vigor Fab to Build Powerful New Fireboat for San Francisco

Illustration courtesy Vigor Fab

The San Francisco Fire Department has finalized an order for a powerful newbuild fireboat that in 2015 will serve to protect the City by the Bay.

The new fireboat will be built by Vigor Fab, a West Coast shipyard that has been expanding its building capacity to fabricate increasingly complex vessels. The fireboat for San Francisco will be the first complete newbuild fireboat for the yard, however, last year they completely rebuilt the Chief Seattle fireboat for the Seattle Fire Department last year.

Vigor Fab will begin construction of the 88’x’25x’14’ vessel this fall in Seattle.

Designed by Jensen Maritime Consultants, the fireboat will have a top speed of 11.5 knots in full load condition and accommodate up to three crew members and four firefighters aboard the vessel. The fireboat engines are EPA Tier III certified Cummins QSK19-M, which have a maximum engine horsepower of 750 bhp at 1800 rpm. Its firefighting system consists of six Stang fire monitors, which will be supplied with water and foam from three 6,000 gpm fire pumps.

“We look forward to working with Vigor on this project and also to the day the new boat will be on the water protecting the people of San Francisco,” said Assistant Deputy Chief Kyle Merkins of the San Francisco Fire Department’s Division of Homeland Security.

“We’ve been aggressively ramping up our ability to fabricate complex vessels. This project is an excellent opportunity to put that preparation into action for our customer,” said Bryan Nichols, Director of Sales at Vigor Fab, a subsidiary of Vigor Industrial. Nichols added that Vigor’s experienced shipbuilding team and facilities in Seattle make the shipyard an excellent choice for the fireboat project.

The fireboat is scheduled to be delivered to the SFFD by fall 2015.

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