Carolina Beach Fire Department to acquire fire boat

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Soon, the Carolina Beach Fire Department will be one of two stations in the county with a fire boat.

The 25-ft addition is expected to give the department an edge during the summer months, making rescue crews better equipped to handle any situation that might happen in the water.

The new boat has built-in fire and rescue capabilities built in. It’s a new addition Alan Griffin, Carolina Beach Fire Chief, is excited to have.

“Being a bare island surrounded by water, we run a lot of water calls throughout the year. Some of those involve boats. Some of them involve swimmers, missing swimmers. So what we see is that we service not only the swimmers and visitors, but the local community that has boats,” Griffin said.

Griffin says he department is more than ready to train on the new fire boat. He says he hopes to have the new addition in the water and ready to use by Memorial Day.