Sax said the township took out a $400,000 loan to purchase the new vehicle for the department. The township has also applied for a Local Share Account (gaming) grant to help defray the cost.

Plains Township Fire Department responds to approximately 1,500 calls a year, and officials estimate the new pumper truck will respond to about 90 percent of them. It took two after the truck was delivered from the factory to put it into service because the 16 full-time and six part-time crew members had to mount equipment and train on the vehicle.

The township also bought the department some new tools, including a battery-powered Jaws of Life set — a device used to free drivers from their vehicles after crashes — and a new hose.

That's the solution being studied for the Embarcadero at Pier 221/2, where the city hopes to replace the cramped and dilapidated facilities now there with quarters that would support three fire boats and one fire engine, with 12 firefighters on duty around the clock. It would be the only fire station on the shoreline and is seen as an essential piece of the city's response to a major earthquake.

The design dilemma is how to place a structure with a 75-year life expectancy on the bay side of the Embarcadero seawall -- a century-old structure that not only needs to be strengthened so it won't buckle during a major earthquake, but also might need to be elevated several feet to prepare for the likelihood of sea level rise.

After investigating several options, the favored approach at City Hall is to replace the existing pier with a floating steel barge that would hold the new station. The small historic station located on the Embarcadero would continue to house the station's fire engine.

"Significant new Fire Department facilities should be as resilient as possible, and on the Embarcadero that means preparing for sea level rise," said Gabriella Judd Cirelli, Pier 221/2's project manager at the city's department of Public Works. "This would be cutting-edge for San Francisco, but certainly not bleeding edge."

In fact, large public structures that float can be found in waterfront locations from Alaska (a school) to Australia (a ferry terminal). At a smaller scale, locally, houseboats are a renowned part of Sausalito's charm.

But a floating fire station on the Embarcadero would be a novelty -- and a relatively trouble-free one at that, at least on paper.

A waterborne pier held loosely in place by mooring piles would be less susceptible to earthquake damage than a standard pier attached to load-bearing piles driven deep into the mud beneath the bay. As for funding, the estimated $6.3 million cost of the proposed pier is $100,000 less than a fixed-pier option.

And then there's sea level rise.

San Francisco now requires all major infrastructure projects along the bay to take into account scientific projections that sea levels could climb several feet by 2100.