Fireboat Training – Did you know we have two (2) fireboats? Well, we do. WPFD has water bodies we serve in the central and north central part of our district.

Fireboat 1 is assigned to a location with Station 5 (primary) at the Yacht Club Marina and operates on the Arkansas River and Little Maumelle River areas and along the banks east to Two Rivers park.

Fireboat 2 is assigned to Lake Maumelle with Station 3 (primary) at the Westrock Marina and operates on all areas of the lake and banks or access points that are reachable.

Each have a firefighting capability with unlimited water supply (lake or river) and provide rescue and EMS functions to distressed callers (911) and auxiliary support to other agencies like Arkansas Game and Fish, Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, Arkansas State Parks, and others as needed.

Our crews are preparing for Arkansas Fire Boat School later this month and will depart to Lake Degray for operational training and drills with other agencies around the state, US Coast Guard, and more.

Last night, we conducted a larger orientation for our monthly training meeting to department folks to familiarize our non-boat crew members with each of our boats, capabilities, operational stations, roles, functions, and likely scenarios.

There are many things to do to train and operate a fire rescue boat whether functioning at the helmsman (driver) or a member of boat crew, it takes the right equipment and people to operate safely AND quickly when calls are dispatched.

Additionally, there are unique challenges to factor between where those boats operate. Vast differences can been seen between where we operate on a very static lake (usually still/calm water) and on the Arkansas River which is currently flowing at about 147,000 cubic feet of water per second and has underwater terrain of sandbars that tend to move around based on the flow.

This was good training for everyone and we anticipate growing our boat crews in numbers and skill levels.

Want to learn more about the many things we do? Drop by your local fire station and visit with our firefighters to find out how you can get a position on the boat crew. Membership has its privileges.

Stay Safe…and wear your life jacket!