Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 29/10/2010 14:56

Cornwall’s fire chiefs are paying tribute to the bravery and professionalism of the 12 firefighters who have been involved in tackling the serious fire on the stricken fish processing ship FV Athena.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service is part of the UK’s Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) in partnership with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. At 2pm yesterday a team of 12 firefighters from Cornwall were flown to the Athena by a helicopter from RNAS Culdrose.

After carrying out an initial assessment of the fire and the stability of the ship, which showed that several hundred thousand cardboard packing boxes were alight on two decks of the ship, the team began fire fighting operations to try and contain the blaze. As well as carrying out fire fighting operations, the crews were also involved in boundary cooling to ensure that the fire did not spread and pumping out water to help ensure the stability of the ship.

“Fighting a fire aboard a stricken vessel is one of the most dangerous operations carried out by fire and rescue services“ said Assistant Chief Fire Officer Ted Simpson.

“Not only are firefighters on board a ship at sea, they are also very facing very hazardous conditions which require a high level of training and specialist equipment.“

By 8.15 pm the fire crews were faced with heavy seas and increasing amounts of thick smoke throughout the ship. It is then thought that a pipe from a refrigeration plant was ruptured pumping ammonia gas into the air. At the same time the carbon monoxide detectors carried by the fire fighters were also indicating high levels of carbon monoxide gas.

“Although the fire crews had been making good progress last night in extremely challenging conditions, the combination of smoke and gas began to affect them when they were having a break from wearing their breathing apparatus” said Ted Simpson. “The worsening weather conditions also meant that the ship’s captain was forced to point the ship into the wind which created even more hazardous conditions for our fire crews. “

At 8.30 pm the decision was made to batten down the ship and evacuate the fire fighters and the five remaining members of the ship’s crew. All the people on board were then taken to Tresliske hospital for precautionary medical checks – four fire fighters by helicopter and the rest by lifeboat. Although the majority were released quickly, eight fire fighters were given oxygen for a short period, with four given further precautionary medical checks before being released by 4 am.

Senior officers from the Cornwall Fire and Rescue service are currently providing welfare support to fire fighters’ families.

“Although our crews are highly trained and well equipped, thanks to our involvement in the MIRG, this was a very dangerous situation “ said Ted Simpson. “Ensuring the safety of our fire fighters is our top priority and we had no choice but to take the crews off the ship”.

“Our fire fighters did a magnificent job in incredibly dangerous conditions and I would like to pay tribute to their bravery and professionalism”.
The Fire and Rescue Service’s Operations Commander for the incident Group Manager Mark Hewitt said that the conditions on board had been among the worst he had experienced as a fire fighter and praised the support they had received from the other agencies involved in tackling the fire.

“This was a real team effort“ he said.“I would particularly like to thank 771 squadron from RNAS Culdrose, the RNLI, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Falmouth Harbour Authority for their support “.

Explaining that the ship was listing to starboard when the crew arrived on board, he said their initial priority was to pump water on board to stabilise the ship. Once that had been done, they were able to start to fight the fire.

“The whole team did a superb job under very difficult conditions and are a real credit to Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service”.

Council Leader Alec Robertson has also paid tribute to the efforts of everyone in Cornwall who has been involved with the incident.“There has been a magnificent response from a large number of agencies and organisations “ he said.

“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved, including the staff from Cornwall Council and the Council’s Fire and Rescue Service.
“It is important to remember that this is not the end of the incident, however. There is still work to do to make this ship safe and we are waiting to see what and where further action needs to be taken”.