David Campbell Fire Boat Last Voyage

On Monday, August 4, 2025, Portland Fire & Rescue held a send-off celebration at Fire Station 21, located at 5 SE Madison, to honor the historic David Campbell Fire Boat.

Commissioned in 1927, the David Campbell served Portland’s waterways for nearly a century before its official retirement in 2021. Throughout its 100 years of service, the vessel played a vital role in numerous significant incidents, consistently providing a reliable and effective platform for firefighters responding to emergencies on the city’s rivers.

There are many generations of firefighters who have had the pleasure of witnessing the David Campbell do exactly what she was designed to do–pull water up from the river in large volumes and extinguish fires. Its most recent opportunity was nearly 10 years ago with a 5th Alarm Fire at the Red Lion on the Columbia River where crews were stretching hand lines and using the large aerial master streams from the ladder trucks without much success. The David Campbell arrived on scene and turned the corner for us, putting the needed gallonage on the fire to allow us to finish the job from the land side.

In the years since the David Campbell’s retirement, members of Portland Fire & Rescue have worked with local nautical historians in hope of finding a publicly accessible home for the vessel, so the history of the David Campbell can live on. After many years of work, the final location was determined to be the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

Attendees watched the final water display and send-off of this historic vessel as she made her last voyage to drydock storage, where she will remain until the spring of 2026, when she is scheduled to be trailered to the museum in Astoria for all to enjoy.