Edward M. Cotter (fireboat)

On July 28, 1928 William S. Grattan responded to the oil barge James F. Cahill, loaded with 5,000 barrels of crude oil, that was aflame.[12] After burning 17 hours, the barge's mooring lines gave way and the barge began to drift. William S. Grattan's crew attempted to attach tow lines to the drifting barge but it struck a dock at an oil company where the empty oil tanker B.B. McColl was moored.[13] The fumes on the B.B. McColl ignited causing an explosion and fire that engulfed William S. Grattan. Captain Thomas Hylant along with his crew abandoned ship and swam through the flames to shore. Chief Engineer Thomas Lynch of William S. Grattan lost his life and seven other crew members were injured. The unattended boilers on William S. Grattan soon ran dry and exploded, leaving the ship burned out and heavily damaged.

William S. Grattan sat boarded-up for eighteen months while city and fire department officials decided whether to replace her at a cost of $225,000 or rebuild her for $99,000, which was $8,000 more than her original cost. The decision was made to rebuild and in 1930 she was rebuilt at the Buffalo Dry Dock Company of Buffalo, New York. During this refit some improvements were made to William S. Grattan. One improvement was that her boilers were converted from burning coal to burning oil.[6] The engines were rebuilt and her firefighting system was updated and could now handle foam fire retardant. Also, the pilot house was raised to the upper boat deck level and a fixed turret tower with a fire monitor was constructed on the stern of the ship. A fourth fire monitor was added to the top of the pilot house of the ship as well. As part of her acceptance ceremony she participated in a race against the harbor tug Kentucky, which was considered to be one of the fastest tugs on the Great Lakes.

In the early 1950s, it was noticed that William S. Grattan was showing signs of age. Her boilers were only able to operate at 40 percent capacity and an engine room steam leak in 1951 injured part of her crew. During November 1952, William S. Grattan was sent to the Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for a refit.

During this refit her boilers and steam engines were replaced by diesel engines, the pumps for the firefighting system were replaced, the single propeller was replaced with twin propellers, the fixed firefighting platform was replaced with a hydraulically operated platform and the twin funnels were replaced with lower dummy funnels. Upon her return in 1954, she was renamed Firefighter. In 1955 she was renamed again in honor of Edward M. Cotter, a respected Buffalo firefighter and the leader of the local firefighters union, who had recently died.[3] After the refit Edward M. Cotter mounted five fire monitors capable of pumping 15,000 US gallons per minute (0.95 m³/s; 12,000 imp gal/min).[6][7]

Edward M. Cotter with her station house in the background

On October 7, 1960 Edward M. Cotter came to the aid of firefighting authorities in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.[14] Two days previously, on October 5, 1960, a set of grain elevators caught fire at the eight-story Maple Leaf Milling Company. The Port Colborne Fire Department did not have its own fireboat and they were unable to bring the fire under control. The Buffalo Fire Department was asked to send Edward M. Cotter to lend assistance. Escorted by a United States Coast Guard cutter, because she had never needed navigational equipment of her own, Edward M. Cotter proceeded across the international border. The voyage to Port Colborne took two hours with an additional four hours needed to bring the fire under control. This mission is said to have been the first instance that a United States fire boat had crossed an international border to help authorities in another country.[14]

In 1978 USS Little Rock, a retired United States Naval guided missile cruiser on display at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, began taking on water and listing. Edward M. Cotter and several Buffalo Fire Department fire engines pumped water out of Little Rock for five days keeping the ship afloat and level while repairs were made.[11] Edward M. Cotter also assisted the disabled United States Coast Guard cutter Ojibwa during the winter of 1983. Ojibwa, while on Lake Erie, had lost her steering and was taking on water. Edward M. Cotter towed Ojibwa to her base in Buffalo and helped keep her afloat while repairs were made.[11] Another rescue occurred on July 31, 1984 when Edward M. Cotter towed the Polish tall ship Zawisza Czarny off a sand bar during the ship's visit to Buffalo.