Fireboat 2 is now In-Service on Lake Maumelle.

We have responded for decades with borrowed boats or reliance on other ferry services to transport to our incident calls on this large body of water in the central and northeast part of our fire district. After years of hoping and planning we can beam with pride at this awesome boat (new to us) that will serve that water, shore and dock areas for many years to come.

Our crews at Station 3 and 5 have spent almost a year refurbishing this boat to serve our fire-rescue platform on Lake Maumelle. Starting with the donated hull re-allocated to us last summer through an Arkansas Forestry Division program for federal surplus equipment, we set a course forward to get all of the equipment operational and make necessary upgrades where possible. It took quite a bit more than paint and graphics but the effort was worth it.

Oh…So…Many…Hours were given to reworking, mechanical, wiring, lighting (emergency and work), communications, navigation, and search equipment that all required refurbishment. Even when we were so very close, the original outboard propulsion that was working then gave up the ghost on our launch day just before the eclipse back in April.

Our sad story from the dock to the shop got more difficult when we found it harder to find parts to restore the motors further or add the reliability needed for an emergency service boat to function in critical responses. We reached out and our community and some amazingly gracious donors came forward to help us meet our mission to replace the old 2-Stroke outboard motors with modern 4-stroke Suzuki units that had even more horsepower.

Thank you to those anonymous donors that made those motors happen and to Reji Short and his team at Trader Bill’s in Hot Springs to mount and upgrade the gauges and more to get us working better than ever.

We launched our Fireboat 2 on Tuesday and began our break-in period to trial all of our systems. We plan to get the fire pump mounted and working soon. This has been a big desire for some time on a very active lake in our area. Look for us out on Lake Maumelle and say Hi! We hope for many years of quick and reliable service on Lake Maumelle when emergencies happen.

Note: This is our second full functioning fireboat since our Fireboat 1 was placed in service in our district in 2012 near our Station 5 at the Little Maumelle/Arkansas River serving those water, shore and dock areas.

Stay Safe…on Lake Maumelle!