CFAV ''Firebird'' was a in the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; , ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The navy is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of February 2024, the RCN operates 12 s, 12 s, 4 s, 4 s, 8 s, and several auxiliary ...

CFB Halifax Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Royal Canadian Navy Atlantic fleet, known as Canadian Fleet Atlantic (CANFLTLANT), that forms part of the formation (military), formation Maritime Forces At ...

, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her sister ship is based in

CFB Esquimalt Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt (CFB Esquimalt) is the Royal Canadian Navy's Pacific Coast naval base and home port to Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force Pacific Headquarters. , 4,411 military personnel and 2,762 civilians ...

. Her three water cannons can fire water, or fire suppressant foam from her two 250 gallon tanks.

Design and construction

According to the ''

Canadian American Strategic Review The Canadian American Strategic Review was an influential Canadian think-tank that comments on Canadian Defence and sovereignty issues. The think-tank operated, for many years, from the campus of Simon Fraser University. It shut down in 2016. Hist ...

'' the class was designed by naval architects Robert Allan Limited, and were built at Vancouver Shipyards in North Vancouver in 1978, and later acquired by the

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

. The two ships displaced and were long, with a beam of and a draught of . The ships were powered by two azimuthing

Z-drive A Z-drive is a type of marine propulsion unit. Specifically, it is an azimuth thruster. The pod can rotate 360 degrees allowing for rapid changes in thrust direction and thus vessel direction. This eliminates the need for a conventional rudder. ...

s and one hydraulic tunnel

bow thruster Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are transversal propulsion devices built into or mounted to either the Bow (watercraft), bow or stern (front or back, respectively) of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow th ...

. This gave the vessels a maximum speed of . The ships had a crew of five firefighters. The Fire class was equipped with three manually-controlled

water cannon A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining. ...

s, two diesel-driven fire pumps capable of expending 2,500 gpm at 150

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

each.

Operational history

On 22 March 2001 a large container vessel, '' Kitano'', one day out of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, requested help fighting an onboard fire after she had gone to sea. Because of the extreme weather, ''Firebird'' was unable to leave the protected waters of

Halifax Harbour Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural har ...

to go to ''Kitanos aid; larger Navy vessels were dispatched instead. ''Firebird'' suppressed a serious fire in 's engine room in 2005. In 2008, the firefighting ship aided the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency department in extinguishing a fire aboard a former Canadian Coast Guard ship CCGS Tupper. In January 2014 it was announced that ''Firebird''s time available for firefighting operations would be cut back due to budget reductions and that all operations on weekends would be suspended. It was announced that on 4 December 2014, ''Firebird'' was taken out of service and declared surplus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firebird (YTR 561) Fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy Fire-class fireboats 1978 ships Auxiliary ships of the Royal Canadian Navy Fireboats of Canada Transport in Halifax, Nova Scotia Ships built in North Vancouver