Shifting with the majority of commercial steamship line freight operations from Manhattan to the Brooklyn waterfront, "Fire Fighter" served with Marine Unit 8 and Engine 223 at the 37th Street Pier through 1967 before shifting once again to the Homeport Pier in Stapleton where she joined Marine Unit 9, an assignment which made her the first-due marine firefighting asset at the heavily trafficked Narrows of New York Harbor and throughout the tight confines of both the Arthur Kill and Kill van Kull. With both waterways already heavily utilized by marine traffic calling at ports on the Chemical Coast, the rise of both the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal and Howland Hook Marine Terminal saw an increasing number of container ships transiting the same waters. These conditions led to several major vessel collisions and shoreside fires during her tenure in Staten Island, but the 1973 collision of "SS Esso Brussels" and SS "Sea Witch" would prove to be the largest fires she would ever fight single-handedly. For her and her crew's part in the response, firefighting and rescue of 31 surviving crewmen from the burning SS "Sea Witch", the "Fire Fighter" was named a Gallant Ship and her crew received the American Merchant Marine Seamanship Trophy. To date, "Fire Fighter" remains the only fireboat to have received this award.