Designed by naval architect William Francis Gibbs and built by the United Shipyards of Staten Island in 1938, Fire Fighter served New York Harbor for more than seventy years. The most powerful fireboat of its time, it fought the S.S. Normandie fire in 1942 and the Sea Witch/ESSO Brussels fire in 1973. Later in its service life, it pumped water to the World Trade Center site after the 2001 attack.