By William Tauro

Sources have reported that the Somerville Fire Department fire boat bearing the call signs Somerville Marine One has taken on water and has partially sunk at its pier located on shore Drive at the Boat House.

Presumably the sinking occurred during heavy rains over the past few days combined with the battery possibly going dead caused by the automatic pump trying to keep up with the water level.

In previous years, Marine One was docked at the Winter Hill Yacht Club located at 500 Way in Somerville. The boat was docked there free of charge as a courtesy to the fire department where members of the yacht club would keep an watchful eye on the boat for the Somerville Fire Department. This past year the Somerville Fire Department decided to dock Marine One at the public dock that’s located on Shore Drive where it is presently docked usually unattended.

In 2017, the Somerville Fire Department (SFD) put into service their updated Marine Unit on June 30th. It is a 19.5 Sea Fox center console boat that was stationed at the Winter Hill Yacht Club at Assembly Row.
Somerville Fire Department as well as Somerville Police Department members have been training with Maritime Tactical Training of Hingham and Massport Fire Rescue Marine Units on Maritime Rules of the Road, Basic Boat handling, Man overboard rescue & Towing operations. 

Pictured above are members of the SFD training in Boston Harbor as well as conducting tow operations with Massport Fire Rescue Marine Unit. 

Although at the time of this photo when the Somerville Fire Department boat was not yet officially in service in 2015, while conducting training on June 20th, the members of the SFD Marine Unit came across a vessel in distress on the Mystic River. The boat was taking on water with a flooded engine.

The SFD Marine Unit was able to successfully tow the boat with it’s operator back to the Mystic Wellington Yacht Club. 
The Somerville Winter Hill Yacht Club has generously donated at the time the use of a boat slip at the yacht club for the new Somerville Fire Unit boat to be stationed.

The Somerville Police boat was previously docked at the Somerville Boathouse on Shore Drive as well. The Somerville Police boat has not been launched this year due to ongoing repairs of a collision damage that the boat substatined while docking.

File footage photos by William Tauro and K. Rojam

As of 12:00 Noon today Monday afternoon the Somerville Fire boat has been pumped out and is floating again.