CFAV Firebird was a in the Royal Canadian Navy designed by Robert Allan Ltd. Firebird was based in CFB Halifax, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[1] Her sister ship is based in CFB Esquimalt.
Her three water cannons can fire water, or fire suppressant foam from her two 250 gallon tanks.[1]
According to the Canadian American Strategic Review the class was designed by naval architects Robert Allan Limited, and were built at Vancouver Shipyards in North Vancouver in 1978,[2] and later acquired by the Canadian Forces.
The two ships displaced 140t and were 23.1m (75.8feet) long, with a beam of 6.4m (21feet) and a draught of 2.6m (08.5feet). The ships were powered by two 365hp azimuthing Z-drives and one hydraulic tunnel bow thruster. This gave the vessels a maximum speed of 11kn. The ships had a crew of five firefighters.[3]
The Fire class was equipped with three manually-controlled 3adj=onNaNadj=on water cannons, two diesel-driven fire pumps capable of expending 2,500 gpm at 150 psi each.
On 22 March 2001 a large container vessel, Kitano, one day out of New York City, requested help fighting an onboard fire after she had gone to sea.[4] Because of the extreme weather, Firebird was unable to leave the protected waters of Halifax Harbour to go to Kitanos aid; larger Navy vessels were dispatched instead.
Firebird suppressed a serious fire in 's engine room in 2005.[1] 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.[5]
In January 2014 it was announced that Firebirds time available for firefighting operations would be cut back due to budget reductions and that all operations on weekends would be suspended.[5] It was announced that on 4 December 2014, Firebird was taken out of service and declared surplus.[3]