Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo's Fireboat, Edward M. Cotter is still going strong.
At 125 years old, the oldest working fireboat in the world, which serves as an ice breaker in the winter, spent 10-and-a-half hours cutting through the ice on the Buffalo River on Tuesday.
"We went past South Park Avenue to about the foot of Babcock Street
and all the way out to Lake Erie. It was a long day but we got everything accomplished that we needed to. It should do the trick," said Cotter Cpt. Michael Kick on WBEN, referring to the potential for ice jam flooding.
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Kick is in his first year as captain of the Cotter.
"The ice beats the boat up pretty good when you're out there," he said. "It's loud. Sometimes the ice pushes you around. You want to go port, and it pushes your starboard. Mother Nature is tough when you have two feet of ice."
The thickest ice, over two feet thick, was on the Buffalo River is between South Park and Babcock.
"We went full throttle into the ice until the ice stops us. Then, we back up, rev the engines and ram through it again. We do the same thing over-and-over again," Kick explained.
Tuesday was the fifth time this season the Cotter has been ice breaking.
"This has been a tough winter," Kick added. "Typically you get a January thaw. We didn't get that. This has been the worst winter for ice since 2019, which had pretty steep ice. When it's stacked up it's like concrete blocks."
The Edward M. Cotter is a national historic landmark, and is maintained by the Cotter Conservancy.
A celebration of the Fireboat's 125th anniversary is planned for Sept. 20 in Riverfest Park in Buffalo.