Bristol’s famous “fire-float”
» ONE of the surviving “veterans” of the Avonmouth fire of 1951 is M Shed’s fireboat Pyronaut, which can still be seen in the Docks today, and which on occasion provides a spectacular display by pumping water high into the air.
Built at Charles Hill’s in 1934 she was originally named Bristol Phoenix II and was a specialist “fire-float” specifically designed to fight fires in the docks. Among the most important design features was the fact that she lies very low in the water, and so can pass easily under low bridges.
She was originally capable of pumping 500 gallons of water per minute, but was later fitted with new pumps able to deliver twice as much.
Not long after she was launched, a similar vessel, the Endres Gane, was built to perform a similar function for Avonmouth.
Bristol Phoenix II and her crew – three firemen and an engineer – were based at the River Police station by Prince Street bridge, and in the pre-war years she attended major fires at Robbins’ timber merchants, the Imperial Saw Mills in Cumberland Road, Charles Hill’s shipyard and William Butler’s tar works at Crew’s Hole. She was also called on to deal with fires at the
MacArthur warehouse in Gas Ferry Road and at the Cumberland Road premises of the Anglo-American Asphalt Company.
Bristol Phoenix II (we know little about Phoenix I) was re-named to avoid confusion when another ship called Phoenix was registered in Bristol. Apparently the name was suggested by a schoolboy studying ancient Greek (‘Pyro’ comes from the Greek for fire) whose father worked for the Port of Bristol Authority.
Of Pyronaut’s wartime service we know almost nothing, as records (if any) do not appear to have survived, but we do know that she was active, alongside two motor-launches equipped with pumps and hoses, throughout the Blitz.
In earlier times she could also come a little further into the middle of town. When the Hippodrome caught fire in 1948 she was brought up St Augustine’s Reach to pump water. In the following years she helped deal with conflagrations at the St. Anne’s Board Mills and at Rowe Brothers’ lead works on Canons’ Marsh.
The 1951 Avonmouth fire saw her rushing downriver to attend, and she pumped water continually for almost two days.
She was re-equipped with new and more powerful pumps in the late 1960s, but by then the City Docks were being wound down. Meanwhile, Avonmouth acquired a new and more powerful fire-float which was named Aquanaut.
In the 1970s work started to convert her to a diving support vessel, but the job was never finished and she was sold to a private individual who intended to convert her for river cruising.
For some reason, though, the new owner had a change of heart and sold her to Bristol City Museum.
The late Andy King and his volunteers at the Industrial Museum later decided to restore her to working condition, a job that took about six years and which was completed in the mid-1990s. One of Pyronaut’s most recent outings was for a special tribute to Andy King on his retirement, not long before he died.
Fire-floats are no longer thought to be needed as there are very few dockside areas which cannot be reached by land-based appliances. Fire cover at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks is provided by land-based fire engines, and by tugs with firefighting equipment.