The Fire Department’s new fire and rescue boat is now on a tractor-trailer truck on a cross-country journey from Vallejo, California, where it was manufactured, to the Newport Shipyard, where the shipyard’s lifts will put it in the water.
Fire Chief Brian Dugan said the boat is expected to arrive Monday in the city, and it will be docked at Perrotti Park off America’s Cup Avenue, close to fire station headquarters. Perrotti Park is the city’s cruise ship and ferry terminal, and the fireboat will be ready to respond 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The City Council voted unanimously in March 2017 to award an $887,642 contract to Moose Boats, a boat designer and manufacturer in the San Francisco Bay Area, to manufacture a modern fire and rescue boat that can respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive device incidents as well as conduct standard rescue missions.