Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 12/04/2012 08:30

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) is backing calls on the government to reconsider its decision to withdraw funding for the Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG).

CFRS was one of 15 fire and rescue services around the country which made up the MIRG – teams working with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to provide an emergency fire and chemical incident response to ships at sea.

While funding was withdrawn at the end of last year, the arrangement officially came to an end on 31 March.

Echoing the comments of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA), Cornwall’s Chief Fire Officer Des Tidbury has raised concerns about how fires on board ships at sea will now be tackled.

“CFRS does not have a statutory responsibility to respond to fires and other emergency incidents on vessels at sea and as funding has now been cut, we are now unable to support this area of work,” said CFO Tidbury.

“Now, rather than sending trained and equipped firefighters to deal with fires at sea, the Department for Transport plan on sending risk assessors who are not trained or equipped to do the job.”

Councillor Lance Kennedy, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for Community Safety and Public Protection, said: “I find it hard to understand how a decision to reduce our resilience to fight fires at sea can be justified when in 2003 the then Secretary of State for Transport launched the ‘Sea of Change’ project in partnership with the MCA and CFOA, the primary aim of which was to establish a fully trained, equipped and integrated FRS response to assist the MCA in dealing with incidents involving fire and other incidents at sea. This led, in 2006, to the formation of the MIRG the first organisation of its kind in the world, but it has now been decided there is no longer any need for that resilience.”

Lee Howell, CFOA President said: “The Department for Transport (DfT) has ended the arrangement it put in place only a few years ago to protect people on board ships. It has done this to save a relatively modest sum of money which we believe is short sighted and will put the public at greater risk.

“Dealing with fires on board ships at sea is extremely dangerous and requires experienced fire and rescue service (FRS) professionals to protect the public. This is a central government responsibility and relying on 'cobbled together' arrangements on the day is simply not acceptable.”