The Deanna Jo is a small fireboat operated by the Alameda Fire Department.
The Department has been providing Port Security grants since 2002, to provide vessels that, in addition to fighting fires, and rescuing boaters and swimmers, are equipped to counter biological and chemical weapons.
The vessel is named after Deanna Johe, an administrative worker with the Department, who was about to retire with 27 years of seniority.
[1] Alameda had operated a less capable small fireboat, until it provided it to the city of Santa Cruz, California, in February 2012.
In 2001 the Fire Department had commissioned a vessel named the Big Jim LeMoine, an older style fireboat, with an open cockpit, not well suited to countering chemical threats.