Fire Boat No. 2

Los Angeles City No. 2, a state of the art fireboat with many innovations, was built in 1925 at the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp. (Todd Shipyard), San Pedro. Launched October 20, 1925, the $214,000 fire boat, later renamed Fireboat 2, the Ralph J. Scott, originally was gasoline-powered and rated at 10,200 gpm.

Fire Aboard the S. S. Warwick
By Stanley E. Halfhill, June 30, 1940

Guardian of Marine Safety
By Captain William Cody, November 1940

Los Angeles Fire Boat No. 2
By Stanley E. Halfhill, November 15, 1940

The Battleship Arizona
By Stanley E. Halfhill, July 1, 1941

The End of Diving Operations
By Stanley E. Halfhill, April 15, 1941

Chief "Denny" Humphreys has returned to the Harbor
By Stanley E. Halfhill, April 15, 1941

Just Soldiering
By Stanley E. Halfhill, December 15, 1941

Fire Boat No. 2 the "White Elephant"
By K. K. Pollard, January 1945

Boat Specifications
By Captain M. P. Allen, Fire Boat No. 2-A,
March 1945

Fire Boat Operations
By K. K. Pollard, April, 1945

The Lumber Schooner Sierra Fire

Los Angeles City No. 2 battled its first major fire, March 3, 1926, when the fully-loaded lumber schooner, Sierra, burned at the E. K. Wood Lumber Company wharf, San Pedro. FIREBOATS by Paul Ditzel.

J.A. Brown,
H. Hollis,
N.O. Chamberlain,
J.R. Lott,
P.J. Larsen, 
H.H. Holmer,
G.M. Jorgensen
Captain M.P. Allen,
B.A. Gray,
J.F. Thompson,
L.A. Furu,
H.P. Bates

March 23, 1941

On the Bridge--

G. M. Jorgensen
P. J. Larsen
H. Hollis
J. F. Thompson
H. H. Holmer
H. P. Bates

Foredeck--

N. O. Chamberlain
J. A. Brown
J. R. Lot
L. A. Furu
Captain M. P. Allen
B. A. Gray

Harbor Notes

K.K. Pollard

    Fire Boat No. 2 acquired a cat, or should I say a kitten.  This little kitten won its way into the hearts of all of the brothers with very little trouble.  Its home was on the Boat and it wouldn't come off even for its meals.  The nozzle room was chosen by this nautical feline for its boudoir.  The nozzle room was also the part of the Boat assigned to McEwen as his cleaning station.

     The first morning after the arrival of the kitten on board Mc. inspected the nozzle room and found that the kitten, bless its little heart, had not been house broken.  Mc. forthwith captured kitty and used one of the oldest methods know for house breaking cats.  The rubbing of the face in the proper place and then tossing the culprit outside.  Outside in this particular instance was overboard.  The kitten proved to be a good sailor by swimming to the gangway and hoisting itself out of the water, climbed back aboard, wet but wiser.  This procedue took place 3 mornings running.  On the fouth morning the kitten saw Mc. coming.  The little cutie ran for the nozzle roon, rubbed its own face in the prpoer place and then ran and jumped overboard returning in the manner described before.  Proving to Mc. that it was a good student even if it wasn't house broke.

The Firemen's Grapevine                                                                October 1945

Boat 2

Circa 1955
Berth 226-227, Terminal Island

One of the few covered boathouses ever built for American fireboats, this building, later known as Fire Station 112 became a waterfront landmark until its demolition, July 22, 1986, to make way for a new cargo container complex.

Going
Under

Port's Landmark
Fireboat Station
to Be Torn Down

By JERRY BELCHER,
Times Staff Writer

    A Los Angeles land mark—or is it a watermark? —is about to vanish.

   Officially, it is Los Angeles Fire Department Station 112. But to the hundreds of firefighters who have served there at one time or another during the past 60 years, it is know simply as Boat 2, an elegantly utilitarian structure on terminal Island where the department has kept its most revered and experienced fireboat out of the weather and in firefight trim since 1926.
    The Port of Los Angeles is paying $170,000 to an Anaheim wrecking company to demolish the big, pale-yellow boathouse to make way for the $24.6-million expansion of its overseas terminal containerization facility.
    The building is believe to be one of the first, and probably the largest, structure of its kind in the country, said Firefighter Bill Dahlquist, an amateur historian in the esoteric field of fireboat hoses. Not coincidentally, Dahlquist also is pilot of the fireboat Ralph Scott, which has been the sole maritime occupant of the station since it was dedicated six decades ago.

Los Angeles Times

 ____________________________________________________________
  FIREBOAT: Demolition of Station

The sleek red-and-white fireboat, launched in 1925 and modernized three times since then, already has moved to its temporary station, an uncovered moorage at Berth 84 in San Pedro near the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. A new permanent facility is to be built within two or three years.
    Somewhat confusingly, the Ralph Scott originally was named L.A. Fireboat No. 2 but was re-christened in 1965 in honor of Fire Chief Ralph J. Scott, who ran the department from 1919 to 1939.
    But the 99-foot vessel is better known to firefighters who have served on it over the years as "Scotty" or, more commonly as Boat 2, exactly the same as the old boathouse.
    Boat 2, the structure, and Boat 2, the vessel, have played large roles in the history of the Fire Department and the harbor area, said Battalion Chief Larry Schneider, commander of the port fire division.
    Schneider, who coincidentally began his firefighting career 32 years ago with an assignment aboard Boat 2, said the boathouse was exceptionally well-designed and built and was by no means outmoded when the decision was made to demolish it.
    "I think everyone in the department has always had great respect for the station and the boat." He said. "I know I was always proud of the fact that I'd worked there. It was just a building, not spectacular, just utilitarian. But there was something about the place that everybody loved."
    He noted that the boat was ready to go 24 hours a day and regularly churned out of the boathouse within 60 seconds of an alarm. He said the response time at the temporary facility will be about two minutes. The reason, he explained is that the fireboat's crew members are quartered in a temporary modular fire station and must make a 200-foot dash to the tie-up.

'It was just a building, not spectacular,
   just utilitarian. But there was something
about the place that everybody loved.'
--Larry Schneider, battalion chief

    In the old boathouse, Scotty rested in the barn-like, three-story center section of the 22,500-square-foot building, which was connected to the crew's one-story living quarters by a permanent gangplank. Firefighters were able to dash aboard in seconds.
    Dahlquist said that in the 1960's and '70's firefighters made that dash about 150 times a year. Nowadays, because of fewer emergencies, he estimated that the average is about 90 a year.
    Some of the alarms of yesteryear were wild ones:
    On Oct. 21, 1944, a flash fire spewed flammable liquid across the harbor, engulfing two Navy landing ships, killing nine men and burning to within about 500 feet of the boathouse itself. Other firefighting spectaculars recorded in the annals of Boat 2 include the June 29, 1947, explosion aboard the gasoline tanker Markay, in which 12 men died, and the Dec. 17, 1975 explosion of the oil tanker Sansinena, which killed eight.
    Preliminary work on the demolition of the old boathouse began Monday, and the walls are scheduled to come tumbling down July 21.
   "We would have liked to have a party (for the boathouse), but we just couldn't find the time for it," Schneider said.
    Dahlquist, who has been stationed at the old place for the past 14 years, said simply: "I'll miss it.