Fire boat comes to the rescue

Clear Lake’s new fire boat was put into official action for the first time following Saturday’s fireworks.

CLFD Public Information Officer Billy Krefft reported fire boat “Bud” was on the water to help the fireworks team from Flashing Thunder keep boaters away from restricted areas and safe from the flammable barges before the spectacle on the water.

As the fireworks show was coming to a close, a small fire broke out on one of the barges.

“We were asked to extinguish a fire on one of the unmanned barges off City Beach,” explained Krefft.  “We had just completed putting the boat away on the lift after the fireworks display on the Fourth and were able to get it back off the lift and operational again within a minute and get water out of the deck gun onto the barge.  It was great that the very first time in operation, Fire Boat Bud was useful and did its job well.”