VIDEO: Fireboat Kevin C Kane Relaunched in Baileys Harbor

Mike Cole in front of the Kevin C. Kane, a former New York City firefighting boat, shortly after buying it. Photo by Len Villano.

The fireboat Kevin C Kane was relaunched at the Baileys Harbor marina Wednesday, June 27.

The boat was commissioned in 1993 and named in honor of a probationary firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1991. According to New York Fire Department literature, the Kane will hit 28 knots (approximately 32 mph) and its water cannons could pump 6,400 gallons a minute.

The Kane served the NYC Fire Department Marine Division for 20 years before being replaced by a bigger, faster fireboat, but during that time she went from a supplementary vessel to the principal fireboat assigned to Marine Co. 6 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It was one of the responders to U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009, when that craft struck a flock of Canada geese and lost engine power, forcing the pilots to ditch the plane in the Hudson River, an incident known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”