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The Curtis Randolph is a fireboat operated by the Detroit Fire Department. The 74.58 feet (22.73 m) vessel was launched in 1979, and is named after a young firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1977. Mayor Coleman A. Young commissioned the vessel.
According to the Detroit Public Safety Foundation it is the "only Class A fireboat on the waterways between Chicago and Cleveland."
She can pump 11,000 gallons per minute. She replaced the John Kendall, an older vessel that required a crew of ten, including five men whose sole responsibility was to stoke her steam engines.
Detroit's economic decline has eroded the Fire Department's equipment maintenance budget. The Curtis Randolph was unavailable for much of 2006 due to delays in crucial repairs. On February 19, 2015, Fox News's Detroit station reported that although in previous years the Coast Guard had moved the vessel from its mooring in the Detroit River in October to prevent ice damage, she still hadn't been removed.
On August 24, 2016, the Curtis Randolph was loaned to help fight a fire at a power plant in St Clair, Michigan, 60 miles (97 km) away. It was the vessel's most distant assignment. Her pumps supplied water to four fire engines. It took the Curtis Randolph four hours to travel to the fire.