Episode 2480
Protector (fireboat)
Sat, 2024-Feb-17 01:20 UTC
Length - 2:30
Direct Link
Welcome to random Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a random Wikipedia page every day.
The random article for Saturday, 17 February 2024 is Protector (fireboat).
The City of Long Beach, California started to operate a new fireboat, now known as the Protector, in May 2014.
The vessel was known as Fireboat 20, until she was officially commissioned, on June 8, 2016.
A sister ship will follow within a year.
The two new vessels will replace the Challenger and the Liberty, commissioned in 1987.
The earlier vessels had a troubled maintenance record.
She will be one of the most powerful fireboats in the world.
Protector is propelled by a pair of Voith-Schneider propellers, an advanced propulsion system that bears some resemblance to helicopter propulsion, and enable instantaneous changes in the propeller thrust.
She is 108 feet long, with a maximum speed of 13 knots. Her ten water cannon can pump 41,000 gallons per minute, more than four times as much as her predecessors. She is able to throw her water up to 236 feet (72 m) in the air, and up to 580 feet (180 m) away.
The two vessels were designed by Robert Allan Limited, a firm known for designing many widely admired tugboats, fireboats and support vessels. In addition to firefighting duties Fireboat 20 and her sister have air-tight crew compartments and a decontamination chamber, so they are equipped to respond to the releases of hazardous material, in particular they can respond to radiological, poison gas, or germ warfare attacks.
The vessels pumps can de-water flooded structures. The vessels are highly automated, and require only a crew of four. They can transport 12 additional individuals. Part of the cabin can serve as an emergency infirmary.
The pair of vessels was budgeted at $51 million.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:20 UTC on Saturday, 17 February 2024.
For the full current version of the article, see Protector (fireboat) on Wikipedia.
This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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Until next time, I'm Ivy Standard.
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