The Guardian was a gift to the people of San Francisco from two anonymous and very generous donors from the Marina who gave $300,000 towards the purchase of the vessel shortly after the earthquake of October 17, 1989. It was their way of saying 'thank you' for a job well done by the Phoenix, which pumped water from the St. Francis Yacht Harbor into the SFFD's Portable Water System to the conflagration at Beach and Divisadero Streets. Without the water supplied by the Phoenix, many more Marina residents would have lost their homes. Guardian, a fine boat with exceptional firefighting capacity, had previously served as a fireboat for the city of Vancouver, B.C. She had been declared surplus and was in the hands of a salvage dealer waiting to be dismantled and sold for scrap. Time was running out but, fortunately, through the interest and perseverance of the Fire Commissioner Sharon Bretz, the way was quickly cleared for her purchase. But then we had to get the boat to San Francisco….

Three pilots from the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association volunteered to crew the boat on its 1,200 mile journey. Because of his almost legendary ability to fix equipment under the most adverse conditions, Phoenix Engineer Nate Hardy was assigned to get the boat ready and keep it running. A $50,000 donation from Shinnyo-En, a Buddhist organization in the Marina, helped defray travel costs, including fuel and oil, outfitting and supplies, and the repairs to make Guardian seaworthy for the long ocean voyage.

Fireboat Guardian Statistics:

• Guardian, Built 1951 in Victoria, BC
• 88 feet long x 21.5 feet wide
• Draft 6' 9"
• Displacement 188 tons
• Fuel 6,500 gallons
• 24,000 gallons per minute water pumped