The Hartz-Booth

fireboat A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with ...

is a boat operated by the City of Huntington,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

Fire Department for emergency responses (firefighting and rescue) on the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

and its tributaries in the Port of Huntington, West Virginia, United States, which is the largest

inland port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...

in the United States. Her mission is to protect life, property and the environment in and along the Ohio River and its tributaries. She is the result of a fourteen-year project to acquire a

FEMA Port Security Grant Since 2002, the Department of Homeland Security has provided Port Security Grants to ports within the United States, to build fireboats. These vessels are thought to help keep the entire United States safer, because, in addition to fighting local ...

from the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...

. On September 3, 2013 the City of Huntington Fire Department was awarded $569,100.00 to purchase the boat. The boat was primarily designed by Captain Jeff Sheets with the assistance of Lieutenant Jaymes Nelson, Lieutenant Charley Shumaker, Captain Shawn Willis, Captain Robert Ray, Private Jeff Waugh and Private Toby Mitchell. Captain Shawn Willis completed the grant application and secured the grant for the fire department. The Hartz-Booth was dedicated and christened during a ceremony on May 22, 2014 at Harris Riverfront Park, Huntington, West Virginia and given the moniker "Marine Company 1" proclaimed by Chief Carl Eastham and Mayor Steve Williams. The Hartz-Booth is named in memory of two city firefighters, Lieutenant Leonard Hartz and Private William Ernest Booth who both drowned in the Ohio River on May 22, 1948, exactly 66 years before the dedication ceremony, attempting to rescue three young boys, John Claypool, Jr., 12 years old, brother Phillip Claypool, nine years old and Hubert James Borders, 12 years old, who went missing in the swollen and swift current around 9:30am. Both the

johnboat A johnboat is a flat-bottomed boat constructed of aluminum, fiberglass, wood, or polyethelene with one, two, or three seats, usually bench type. They are suitable for fishing, hunting and cruising. The nearly flat hull of a johnboat tends to ...

the boys were rowing and the fire-rescue boat the two firefighters launched to rescue them capsized under a moored barge in the swift current and drowned them all. All five bodies were recovered from the Ohio River. The boat was constructed by

Lake Assault Boats A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

Superior, Wisconsin Superior (; ) is a city in Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,751 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located at the western end of Lake Superior in northwestern Wisconsin, the city l ...

(4) after winning the competitive bid. The Hartz-Booth is in length and has a beam and is made of aluminum. She is currently docked at Adams Landing Marina in the Guyandotte section of the city and is assigned to Guyandotte Fire Station No. 5 - Engine Co. 5. The fire pump is a Hale per minute pump and flows river water through the sea chest and into the pump for firefighting water. She operates two manual monitor nozzles located on each side of the bow deck and one remote-controlled monitor located on the cabin roof. The fire pump is powered by a 6.0 liter gasoline engine and the boat is propelled by two Mercury gasoline outboard engines. The Hartz-Booth has an enclosed

pilot house A bridge (also known as a command deck), or wheelhouse (also known as a pilothouse), is a room or platform of a ship, submarine, airship, or spaceship from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is under way, the bridge is manned by an off ...

and climate-controlled patient areas, head and galley and is equipped with multi-agency, two-way radios,

Forward Looking Infrared Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras, typically used on military and civilian aircraft, use a thermographic camera that senses infrared radiation. The sensors installed in forward-looking infrared cameras, as well as those of other thermal ...

(FLIR)

night vision Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night v ...

, Lowerance GPS-enhanced RADAR and side scan

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

, American Safety Room

CBRNE Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense (CBRN defense) or Nuclear, biological, and chemical protection (NBC protection) is a class of protective measures taken in situations where chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclea ...

filter system and breathing air cascade and refill system and a power landing-craft forward bow door.3 She is the larger of two boats operated by the City of Huntington Fire Department. The other is an open-bow, Carolina Skiff, in length and made of fiberglass. A second Port Security Grant Program grant was awarded to the City of Huntington to construct a floating boathouse and sub-station located on the Ohio River to house the Hartz-Booth, Marine Co. 1 and the city's police patrol boat. That project is currently in the planning stages.

References

{{Reflist Firefighting in West Virginia Fireboats of the United States The boat sank due to negligence, and while it has been retrieved, it has not yet been returned to service.