CFAV Firebird (YTR 561)

CFAV Firebird is a Fire-class fireboat in the Royal Canadian Navy designed by Robert Allan Ltd.. Firebird is based in CFB Halifax, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her sister ship CFAV Firebrand is based in CFB Esquimalt.

Her three water cannons can fire water, or fire suppressant foam from her two 250 gallon tanks.

Design and construction

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, and later acquired by the Canadian Forces.

The two ships displaced 140 tonnes (138 long tons) and were 23.1 metres (75 ft 9 in) long, with a beam of 6.4 metres (21 ft) and a draught of 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in). The ships were powered by two 365 horsepower (272 kW) azimuthing Z-drives and one hydraulic tunnel bow thruster. This gave the vessels a maximum speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph). The ships had a crew of five firefighters.

The Fire class was equipped with three manually-controlled 3-inch (76 mm) water cannons, two diesel-driven fire pumps capable of expending 2,500 gpm at 150 psi each.