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City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: Mayor Announces New Fireboat Name, 'Leschi'
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
5/4/2006 2:00:00 PM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Alex Fryer (206) 684-8358
Christina Faine (206) 386-1463
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Mayor Announces New Fireboat Name, “Leschi”
Name chosen from contest with students at Alternative School #1
SEATTLE—Mayor Greg Nickels and Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean introduced
the 8 year-old contest winner, Kadi Camara, and the name she chose for Seattle’s
new fireboat, Leschi.
“Naming the fireboat after the great leader of the Nisqually Tribe,
Chief Leschi, is a fitting tribute to the proud history of the region’s
Native Americans and of Seattle’s hard-working fire department,” Nickels
said.
The new fireboat is 108 feet long with a water pumping capacity of 20-thousand
gallons per minute and a top speed of 14 knots. The boat will replace the Chief
Seattle as the city’s primary firefighting boat on saltwater. Engines
and pumps on the 23-year old Chief Seattle will be upgraded and the boat will
move to freshwater. The Alki, built in 1928, will retire from city service.
The Seattle Fire Department held a month long “Name the Fireboat” contest
with the students at Alternative School #1 in North Seattle. The students were
asked to submit a name of Northwest Native American origin in keeping with
the tradition of previous Seattle fireboats and write a paragraph explaining
why the name they chose was the best name for a new fireboat.
A panel of judges including the mayor, the Fire Chief and a member of the
Haida Indian Tribe chose the name submitted by second grader, Kadi Camara.
Kadi’s winning entry will grant her a dinner for five at Fire Station
Five cooked by a Seattle Firefighter who is a Cordon Bleu trained chef and
a fireboat ride.
The new and retrofitted fireboats will be able to provide emergency medical
services, rescue and salvage, and pump water to fires on land should water
mains break during earthquakes or other disasters.
Following a number of significant marina fires, analysis of the Fire Department’s
marine firefighting operations showed that Seattle’s aging fleet of fireboats
needed to be maintained and/or replaced. In 2004, citizens voted to protect
Seattle’s waterways as part of the Fire Facilities Levy.
The $12 million dollar boat, funded through the levy, is being built by Dakota
Creek Industries of Anacortes and is scheduled for delivery in January 2007.
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Office of the Mayor
Seattle Fire Department
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