Iconic Fireboat Turns 80 In Greenport, Festivities All Weekend

GREENPORT, NY — Greenport's glorious fireboat, Fire Fighter, is celebrating a banner birthday — and the public is invited to join in.

Bobbing bright red in Greenport's harbor, the fireboat Fire Fighter is a symbol of the nation's maritime legacy.

According to its website, the Fireboat Fire Fighter is turning 80, and a weekend celebration will take place from Friday to Sunday.

Here's a schedule of festivities:

- To kick off the fun, on Friday, a water display will take place in Greenport Harbor at 7 p.m.

- On Saturday, free fireboat tours will be offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

- Also on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the Eastern Long Island Antique Fire Apparatus Association will hold firetruck muster near the fireboat and East End Seaport Museum. 25 firetrucks will be in Mitchell Park near the East End Seaport Museum, along the road and in the parking lot near the commercial dock. Fire Service & U.S. Coast Guard demonstrations will run during truck muster

- On Sunday, from 9 a.m. to noon, there will be free fireboat tours. From noon to 3 p.m., the fireboat will be re-christened by Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the Fire Fighter's architect, with a water display immediately following.

Food, drink, fireboat T-shirts and merchandise will be available for purchase.

The Fire Boat Museum is a 501c3 non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving Fire Fighter as a fully operational vessel, memorial, and teaching museum." The museum is run entirely by volunteers.

Fire Fighter, the site says, was in frontline service for over seven decades, protecting New York Harbor and "being involved in some of the most storied and harrowing maritime emergencies in United States history."

The most award-decorated fireboat in the world, at the time of her 2010 decommissioning she was the second oldest fireboat in frontline service worldwide and was the longest-serving member of the FDNY Marine Unit Fleet, the site explains.

A National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Fire Fighter is the only fireboat to have received the Gallant Ship Award since its establishment in 1944.

The fireboat was designed by naval architect William Francis Gibbs in 1938 and fought over 50 major fires, including fires aboard the SS Normandie, El Estero, Esso Brussels and Sea Witch, as well as several dozen major pier fires throughout New York Harbor.

The Fire Fighter, on the darkest of days, led the FDNY Marine Unit response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 by supplying water to emergency crews fighting fires in Ground Zero.

The vessel spent three weeks pumping at maximum capacity while the crew sought out damaged but still-operational pumpers to use as inland pumping stations among the rubble of the Twin Towers, the site explains.

Ownership of the Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum was transferred in October, 2012 and the vessel was relocated to Greenport in February, 2013.

"Fire Fighter has been saved from the scrapyard and has been given a new lease on life in her golden years. She now has a chance to share her decks with the rest of the country as a living tribute to her crews, her architect and the truly astounding amount of American history that has she has witnessed," Charlie Ritchie, president of the Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum, has said.

For a full schedule of the weekend's events and additional information about the fireboat Fire Fighter, click here.

Patch photo by Lisa Finn.