Fireman’s Hall Museum is currently revamping our fireboat exhibit and in doing our research, we realized many people don’t know much about fireboats but they’re some of the most unique and interesting fire apparatus that a city can have!
The current front of the museum’s fireboat exhibit. The city skyline backdrop was updated in 2014.
The Independence is the PFD’s newest fireboat and was put into service in 2007 but this new boat’s design does not waver much from the original fireboat, the Edwin S. Stuart, which was put into service in 1893. The boats were originally named after mayors, J. Hampton Moore, Bernard Samuels and Stuart were all Philadelphia mayors. Today, there are 3 Marine Fire Fighting Units in service, the Delaware, Independence and Benjamin Franklin. The boats pump 6,000 gallons of water per minute, which would fill an Olympic swimming pool in over an hour. They weigh around 88 tons – or the equivalent of 11.3 African elephant!
The Independence (Fireboat 1) putting on a water display at the Fireman’s Hall Muster in October 2014.
Come by the museum to find out more about fireboats and stay tuned for updates on our progress!
