Bethel Island Soon to Get Fire Boat

By Rowena Coetsee

Bethel Island residents are expected to receive a new fireboat within the next two months.

One has been docked in the Delta community since East Contra Costa Fire District borrowed the specialized vessel from the county sheriff’s office in May 2007. The agency soon will be getting a permanent replacement that has been under construction the past 2 1/ 2 months, according to the Washington-state manufacturer.

Acting Chief Hugh Henderson hopes to have a delivery date by next week.

Henderson and his crew have been waiting for another fire boat of their own since the district retired its 27-year-old model in fall 2006. Officials decided it would be more cost-effective to put the estimated $100,000 in repairs toward the purchase of a new one.

The order stalled, however, because the federal government’s need to supply the military with ships takes precedence, Henderson said.

The $314,000 vessel, a cost that includes training and transportation, will be faster — capable of speeds up to 48 mph. It also will be capable of spewing water on a burning building at the rate of 1,000 gallons per minute, more than three times the pumping power of the loaner at Bethel Harbor, Henderson said.

More likely than not, however, the new acquisition won’t be showing up at structure fires around the island, he said.

The two-person crew at Bethel Island’s only fire station also operates the fire boat because it doesn’t make financial sense for small- to mid-size agencies like East Contra Costa Fire District to have the vessel staffed around the clock.

As such, the agency only dispatches the fire boat to spots that aren’t accessible by land such as the Delta’s small islands or the middle of Frank’s Tract, Henderson said.

Moreover, response times are faster when trucks are rolling, he said. On the 25 occasions that the island’s fire crew has used the county sheriff’s fire boat in the past 14 months, it first had to drive to the end of Bethel Island Road where the vessel is docked and then to the scene of the emergency, Henderson said.

That’s why two water tenders and eight engines responded to a two- alarm fire on Taylor Road late last month even though the house was just behind the levee, he said.

The vehicles collectively held 8,000 gallons of water, more than enough to douse the attic blaze that an electrical malfunction had started, Henderson said.

Reach Rowena Coetsee at rcoetsee@bayareanewsgroup.com or 925-779- 7141.

Originally published by Rowena Coetsee, East County Times.

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