A fireboat is a specialized watercraft, often resembling a tugboat, with pumps and nozzels designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. They are particularly useful for fighting fires on docks and shoreside warehouses as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. As they also have an unlimited supply of water available, they can be used to assist shore based firefighters when other water is in low supply or is unavailable, for example, due to earthquake breakage of water mains, as happened in San Francisco due to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Fireboats are most usually seen by the public when welcoming a fleet or historical ships with a display of their water moving capabilities, throwing large arcs of water in every direction.
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