MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX– The North Montgomery County Fire Department has acquired a new watercraft to better serve Lake Conroe residents, businesses, and visitors. Lt. Murphy said the boat is a 2023 Munson Packcat and is 30 feet of boat, and takes up around 37 feet with the motors. It replaced a 20-year-old boat.
Wait time was a couple of years to get the Packcat, partly because it was special ordered like all firefighting equipment, and partly because of COVID-19. Nevertheless, everyone was excited about the cool new water apparatus.
“They can drop the bow door completely down and go below the water level, so we can have a contingency diver sit on the front of it,” Murphy said. “That’s the backup diver to our primary, to go out there and be able to assist with any of the dives.”
Some of the advantages of the new craft are in the design, with a wave break in the middle, which Murphy says makes it a smoother ride. Also, the motors’ placed further apart is beneficial, because the rear of the vessel doesn’t seem to pivot like the ones on other models that were much closer together. The boat additionally sports a 550 pump, which is similar to what’s on their booster trucks, and that should make maintenance easier.
Lt. Murphy and Chief Oliphant say the vessel will allow them to provide better service on land and on water. They’re often called upon to attack a lakeside residential fire from the water.
“We’ll be able to supply most of our residential fires with enough water and can put out any marine fires that we come across,” Lt. Murphy said.
The highest speed they’ve achieved in the Packcat so far is 52 mph, but they say 45 to 47 is average.
The Chiefs said they expressed the need to replace the department’s 20-year-old boat to ESD 1 Commissioners. The boat committee then researched boats, and decided a Munson was the best option. Fine tuning the specs was all that was left to be done, besides the wait, which the pandemic lengthened.
Conroe and Montgomery Fire Departments and the Pct. 1 Constable’s Lake Patrol also have boats on Lake Conroe, and all are busier than most people would imagine.
“You’d think it was only needed during the nice part of the year,” Chief Oliphant said. “But any time a storm comes through, that’s when we’re going to be out on the water rescuing somebody, because Lake Conroe goes from very calm to very rough, very quickly.”
Oliphant said it had been a quiet year so far, but pointed out the year isn’t finished. He added that some of the worst calls to which they responded were during the winter.
The fire boat that was replaced was used in many infamous incidents, including the April Sound Country Club fire in September 2006 and the Lake Conroe Condos fire a year later.
Congratulations to NMCFD on the new boat! Good job, ESD 1!
