Town Investing In New Fire Response Boat

The Nantucket Marine Department will soon acquire a new fire response and emergency vessel for Nantucket Harbor to provide the town with new capabilities to fight boat fires and respond to other marine emergencies.

The Select Board on Wednesday unanimously approved the purchase of a new 37-foot Harbor Guard vessel for $225,000 from the Helen H Offshore Fishing Corp.

The vessel is capable of pumping 2,000 gallons per minute from two water guns and has towing capability. It would provide the town with a level of fire response on the water that does not currently exist, Harbormaster Sheila Lucy said.

“With our entire waterfront infrastructure being wooden - with the exception of the Steamship - this will be an awesome addition,” Lucey said. “We need it, and we’ll use it.”

The plan is to train police and fire personnel to U.S. Coast Guard crew standards to man the vessel during an emergency. Lucey said she and fire chief Michael Cranson recently took the boat for a test drive and were impressed with its capabilities.

The Harbor Guard vessel draws from the body of water it is operating on but also comes with a tank for foam fire suppression as well.

"The purchase of this boat is going through the Police Department and the Harbormaster's Department, and it’s a great opportunity for us to collaborate as three departments," Cranson told the Select Board on Wednesday. "Sheila has been gracious enough to offer training to train all the firefighters to a certification level of being boat operators. So that’s our first step. I believe she’s also going to train some of the police officers as well. The idea is that if there’s an emergency on the water, the best way to say it is we need each other’s help. We need to work together as a team… Our whole focus is to be mission-oriented and figure out how to get responders to a scene as quickly as possible and effect a rescue or extinguish a fire.”