CFAV ''Firebird'' was a in the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack subma ...

Robert Allan Ltd. Robert Allan Ltd. is Canada's oldest privately owned Consulting firm, consulting Naval architecture, Naval Architectural firm, established in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1930. Their experience includes designs for vessels of almost all types ...

''Firebird'' was based in

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 Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT). It ...

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

CFB Esquimalt Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt (CFB Esquimalt) is Canada'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 work at CFB Esquima ...

. 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. History In 2007 the ''Can ...

'' the class was designed by naval architects

Robert Allan Limited Robert Allan Ltd. is Canada's oldest privately owned consulting Naval Architectural firm, established in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1930. Their experience includes designs for vessels of almost all types, from small fishing boats to ocean- ...

, and were built at Vancouver Shipyards in

North Vancouver North Vancouver may refer to: *North Vancouver (city), a city in British Columbia, Canada * North Vancouver (district municipality), a district municipality in British Columbia, Canada * North Vancouver (electoral district), a federal electoral di ...

in 1978, and later acquired by the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Ai ...

. The two ships

displaced Displaced may refer to: * Forced displacement Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNH ...

and were long, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...

of and a

draught Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

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 thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow 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, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviation ...

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 or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, 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 harb ...

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 CCGS ''Tupper'' was a Canadian Coast Guard ice-strengthened buoy tender that served from 1959 to 1998. The vessel spent her entire career on the East Coast of Canada. Following her Canadian service, ''Tupper'' was sold to private interests with ...

. 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