These two, assisted by tugboats and military fireboats, tried but failed to stop the horrific fires which swept the city after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

This firehouse was moved by barge to Pier 22½ near the intersection of Harrison Street and Embarcadero following the Exposition, when the old fair buildings were being torn down and the Marina District was being built in its place.

[4] To fill the anticipated lack of a fireboat, Phoenix was built in 1954 in Alameda by Hugh F. Munroe of Plant Shipyard, paid for by the State of California.

[4][5] Her name came from a contest publicized by the Port Authority; the winning suggestion was submitted by a member of the Phoenix Society, a group of San Francisco citizens interested in civil fire protection.

Phoenix, the mythical firebird which rose anew from ashes, seemed appropriate because the city of San Francisco had risen seven times from great fires.

Local naval architects Morris Guralnick Associates submitted a design in 1980 to replace Phoenix, but the estimated construction costs far exceeded the bond.

In September 1965, the Norwegian freighter MS Berganger collided with the tanker Independent, resulting in fires aboard the ships.

[14] In December 2011, a tourist DUKW boat suffered an engine fire while in McCovey Cove, and Phoenix doused the flames while the Coast Guard rescued the passengers and crew.

One of the hardest-hit locations was the Marina District of San Francisco; a densely populated neighborhood built up primarily in the 1920s on rubble, sand and debris dumped at the edge of the bay following the 1906 earthquake.

Fire crews were forced back, and with the assistance of off-duty police and civilian volunteers they ran hoses four blocks away to alternate sources.

[20] Despite the problems requiring pilot and commander Arvid Havneras[21] to perform an extraordinarily hazardous docking procedure, at 7:00 pm Phoenix was ready to pump at the Marina lagoon, two blocks away from the first fire.

[16] Fire crews were manning hoses laid in anticipation; firefighters at the burning buildings were instructed to hold their ground, that they would soon have more water.

[16] In a parallel effort, the AWSS lines were inspected by city workers, temporary repairs made, and two high-pressure pump stations were brought back into operation at about 8 pm, supplying 10,000 U.S. gallons per minute.

[24] Senator Feinstein read the book to students at the opening of a new San Francisco elementary school dedicated in her name in August 2006.

[28] Phoenix threw out plumes of water to celebrate the reopening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge on November 16, 1989 following its closure due to earthquake damage.

[31] In 2008, Phoenix led a similar parade including Californian (California's official tall ship, based in San Diego) and the Coast Guard barque the Eagle.

Maintenance problems on the historic vessels increased to the point that Phoenix needed to be lifted into dry dock for extensive repairs to the hull.