By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City and an Alabama company that supplies firefighting equipment decided to play a game of “Let’s Make a Deal.”
The result? Sea Isle has swapped a 26-foot rescue boat for a used fire department vehicle that had been owned by Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus of Union Grove, Ala.
City Council approved a resolution during a meeting Tuesday designating the rescue boat as surplus property because it is “no longer needed.”
In the deal with Brindlee Mountain, the boat was traded for a “fully upfitted” 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe command unit vehicle that will now be used by Sea Isle’s volunteer fire department.
“We’re definitely going to get more use out of the command vehicle than the boat,” said Police Chief Anthony Garreffi, who oversees Sea Isle’s public safety.
Now that Sea Isle has gotten rid of the boat, it has no plans to acquire another one. Instead, the city will look to the U.S. Coast Guard and the New Jersey State Police for help with water rescues, Garreffi said. The State Police keeps a rescue boat year-round at Sea Isle’s public marina.
Garreffi stressed that there will be no letup in the fire department’s mission to protect homes and businesses in Sea Isle.
“There’s not going to be any change in the way that the fire department battles structure fires,” he said.
Garreffi credited Sea Isle Fire Chief Bryan Moran for negotiating the deal with Brindlee Mountain to exchange the boat for the command vehicle.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio said Cape May County bought the rescue boat for Sea Isle in 2009. City officials did not immediately know the price.
The boat’s history was less than glamorous. During one storm, it partially sank while it was being docked at the city’s marina, Garreffi said.
In 2020, the fire department and the city reached an agreement in which the city paid $18,000 to refurbish the boat to bring it back into full working order, according to former Fire Chief John Mazurie. Sea Isle’s Fully Refurbished Fire Boat Ready For Rescues | Sea Isle News
The boat had been kept in the water year-round at the marina and was exposed to storms and salt water, causing it to become deteriorated.
Used by both the fire and police departments, the boat was equipped to rescue divers and boaters. It also had the ability to fight fires with the capacity to pump 700 gallons of water per minute.
However, the 700 gallons per minute capacity was less than half of the 1,500 gallons per minute capacity that Moran thought was needed to battle fires, Garreffi explained.
“It was definitely undersized and not the proper equipment for how the fire chief wants to use his apparatus,” he said.
Another challenge for Sea Isle in operating the boat was that it required a fully trained captain and a crew of three to conduct rescues or fight fires, Garreffi said.
