Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 25/06/2006 10:00

On Sunday 25th June the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will be running a live exercise to test a number of agencies but in particular the Cornwall County Fire Brigade’s response team element, which is part of the recently formed national Maritime Incident Response Group.

The simulated incident is being coordinated by Falmouth Coastguard and is designed to test a number of key issues in relation to Cornwall Fire Brigade responding as part of the MCA's national MIRG initiative to a ship on fire (simulated this time by the locally based Coastguard emergency towing vessel, the `Anglian Princess’).

It is seen as an opportunity to exercise and test the interagency partnerships and work directives necessary to ensure a fully coordinated response. This was recently tested when the cruise ship 'Calypso' declared a mayday reporting a fire on board off the coast of Sussex. The ship with 700 passengers and crew onboard reported a major fire in the early hours and the HM Coastguard from Dover coordinated the response to a vessel.

The MIRG element from East Sussex was called upon by the MCA on this occasion with three other elements including Cornwall being alerted. A successful outcome was achieved.

The UK MIRG was officially launched by the Secretary of State for Transport on the 20th April this year.
MIRG comprises 15 Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) teams strategically located around the country, with about 50 fire fighters in each team. Each team has been specially trained to tackle fire in the marine environment and is equipped with the lighter, more compact equipment required when traveling by helicopter to the scene of an incident. The teams will not only fight fires but also deal with chemical hazards and free trapped personnel.
In addition, the teams' specialised training, allied to a helicopter capability, will provide a valuable, additional resource for the emergency services across the rest of the UK. Each team will be reinforced with paramedics who will also be trained in the unique conditions that they will face.
This new service, one of the first of its kind in the world, is the result of a major cross-governmental project involving some of the principal organisations behind the UK's civil resilience, supported by almost £3m of funding from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Department for Transport.

Simon Rabett, Rescue Coordination Centre Manager, Falmouth Coastguard said:

"The new Maritime Incident Response Group will strengthen our capability to respond to fires and other emergencies that occur at sea, with highly-trained teams able to be deployed by helicopter at short notice, and we are delighted to be able to play our part by testing these new procedures with our colleagues in the Cornwall Fire Service”
John Sweeney, Senior Divisional Officer, Cornwall County Fire Brigade said:

“This is our first opportunity to exercise our newly formed MIRG team. The remodeled FRS/MCA ‘joint approach’ to dealing with maritime incidents will ensure that all agencies involved in an incident are adopting an integrated response. More importantly we will be providing better trained and equipped teams to deal with fire, rescue and chemical incidents on ships at sea around the UK coastline”

Ted Simpson, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Cornwall County Fire Brigade added:

“The advent of the MIRG hails a new level of professional fire-fighting response around the coastline of the UK. Cornwall has one of the UK’s longest coastlines and is surrounded by busy shipping lanes. The Fire Brigade in Cornwall has a long and proud history of fighting fires aboard vessel off our coast and the new multi-agency approach to this type of incident will provide a safer more effective fire and rescue capability”