In April 2011, the Chicago Fire Department took delivery of a new NFPA Class III fireboat to replace the aging 'Victor L Schlaeger'. The new vessel, 'Christopher Wheatley', was designed by Robert Allan of Vancouver BC, and built by Hike Metal Products of Wheatley, Ontario, Canada.
This fireboat is one of several of fireboats designed by Robert Allan and built in Canada for US cities in recent years, signifying one of the very few market segments available to Canadian shipyards under the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.
The new fireboat sailed under its own power from Wheatley to Chicago through the Great Lakes.
The RAnger 2700-class fireboat has a length overall of 27.42 metres, moulded beam of 7.62 metres, moulded depth of 3.71 metres and a maximum operating draught of 2.28 metres.
'Christopher Wheatley's' design was extremely customised to suit the operating environment. The fireboat was designed and built to operate year-round in Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, and surrounding harbours, which experiences up to 30cm of first year ice. The combination of a very shallow operating draught and an equally limiting air draught presented a significant design challenge, especially regarding weight estimation: if too heavy, the vessel would near the bottom of the shallow river; if too light it would run afoul of the numerous low height bridges that grace the Chicago River through downtown Chicago. The new fireboat will be used to respond to any firefighting, rescue, hazmat decontamination, dive support operations, and other waterway related responses.
As in the majority of fireboats, this vessel is set up as a "day-boat" with no crew living spaces. However the vessel is set up to support the operating crew with well-equipped galley, mess and rest areas. Other major features include a dedicated EMS treatment space with a direct entry from the main deck, adjacent to which is a decontamination shower. A further EMS space is located below decks. Aft on main deck there is a large equipment storage room which, amongst other items, houses 28 Eastern Aero Marine life rafts and 150 lifejackets for rescue purposes. Another storage space houses the SCUBA and SCBA gear. Due to the constraints on the design, many of the storage spaces are served by roll-up doors on the sides of the deckhouse, providing large clear openings to each service or storage space.
The wheelhouse is designed to provide maximum possible visibility within the constrained geometry of the deckhouse. Sightlines forward and to the sides are excellent, but more constricted looking aft. The wheelhouse has four distinct control centres, two for navigation and control, and one each for machinery controls and communications.
The 'Christopher Wheatley' was built in accordance with American Bureau of Shipping regulations for steel vessels, but was not so classed. The vessel was also designed to comply with NFPA Type III Standards for fireboats.
The propulsion machinery consists of a pair of CAT C32 high-speed diesel engines, each rated 1,081kW at 2,300 rpm. These each drive a fixed pitch 1,371mm diameter propeller through a ZF model W4610 reverse-reduction gearbox.
The fire-fighting capability is provided by two completely independent pump engines, CAT model C32 diesels, each rated 745kW at 1,800rpm, and driving a FFS model SFP 250 by 350 fire pump, rated at 1,590m³ per hour at 10 bar. There are three monitors located forward, at the centre and port and starboard sides, and one aft. The aft monitor is atop a hydraulically elevating mast, which raises the monitor to a height of 9.14 metres above the water. In addition to the main monitors, there is an array of hose connections on each side and at the forward end of the boat. There are nine connections on each side and four connections at the forward end of the vessel.
Auxiliary power is provided by a pair of CAT model C4.4 diesel gensets, each rated 99ekW.
On trials, the new fireboat met all performance expectations, achieving a bollard pull of 30 tonnes ahead and a free running speed of 13 knots.