Authorized for construction in early 1937 by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia based on designs submitted by noted naval architect William Francis Gibbs and his firm Gibbs & Cox, "Fire Fighter" was laid down at United Shipyards as Hull #856 and was christened and launched on August 28, 1938, by Eleanor Grace Flanagan. After fitting out and sea trials, "Fire Fighter" officially entered service with the New York City Fire Department at 9:00 a.m. on November 16, 1938, with Engine 57 at Pier 1 at the Battery, which would later be organized as Marine Unit 1. Serving from this post through the mid-1960s, "Fire Fighter" would respond to two of her most famous actions; the fire and capsizing of the SS "Normandie" in 1942 and the fire aboard the ammunition-laden SS "El Estero" in 1943, among dozens of other vessel and pier fires across New York Harbor.