The city’s new $1.7 million fire barge rumbled to life Thursday, inhaled Mississippi River water, and spewed it roughly 500 feet through two water cannons in what was probably a rare display of its waterpower in front of Tom Lee Park.

Memphis Fire Services Director Gina Sweat said the barge will be used if a riverboat or Valero’s riverside oil refinery catches fire or there’s a major river rescue, but likely won’t see much other action.

“It’s more for a catastrophic event,” she said over the roar of the water cannons.

The city retrofitted the 120-foot-long barge using a $1.7 million Department of Homeland Security grant, and will use it in the Port of Memphis and on the Mississippi River, Battalion Fire Chief Colin Burress said.

“It’s for anything that falls within our area,” he said.

It takes the barge about two and a half hours to be pulled by a tug boat from McKellar Lake to Beale Street Landing, so it won’t be able to quickly respond to smaller fires on the river. The last time the city had a barge catch fire was in 2004, said Deputy Chief Keith Staples.

But once the fire barge is on the scene, its two main cannons can each shoot 6,000 gallons of river water per minute, and its two portable cannons can shoot 1,500 gallons per minute. The water can also be injected with a concentrated liquid foam to fight oil fires.

The barge, which is equipped with a two-ton crane and a small boat, can also serve as a larger rescue vehicle if a riverboat gets in trouble and needs to immediately unload passengers, Burress said. It has six bunk beds and a bathroom.