Maritime Incident Response Group
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Incident - Helicopter Winching Training for Firefighters
Date - 17th October 2007
Time - 1030hrs
Members of the States of Jersey and States of Guernsey Fire and Rescue Services have formed a combined team trained to deal with emergency incidents such as fire or chemical spillages which can occur on vessels at sea.
Training for teams is also standardised and both Jersey and Guernsey firefighters have attended two day sea survival and helicopter underwater escape training courses at Warsash Maritime Centre in Hampshire. The “highlight” of the course involves team members strapped into a helicopter simulator and being submersed and fully inverted in a deep water tank; the aim being to demonstrate the correct procedures to be carried out when evacuating a ditched helicopter that has become fully submersed. Following the evacuation drills training focuses on sea survival procedures which included abandonment of a vessel, launching a life raft, raft capsize drills and medical aspects of survival.
Further helicopter familiarisation training is being carried out with the Coastguard helicopter from Portland. The helicopter will arrive in the Island on Wednesday 17th October and be winching members of the team and there equipment onto the States of Jersey Tug ‘Duke of Normandy’ in St Aubins bay.
Training with the Coastguard helicopters is vital to team members and will allow them to be fully prepared with all helicopter safety procedures in the event of an incident.
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Incident - Maritime Incident Response Group Exercise "Condex" - Fire onboard Commodore Clipper.
Date of Incident - 28th September 2007.
Time of Incident - 0800-1430hrs.
On Friday 28th September whilst on passage from Portsmouth to Guernsey The Commodore Clipper will report a fire onboard. The ships fire team will confirm this to be a serious incident. The Master of the vessel will request firefighting assistance from the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) who in turn will inform The Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) MIRG teams from Jersey Guernsey and Hampshire will attend.
The States of Jersey Tug 'Duke of Normandy will act as a Safety/Support vessel and be transporting 12 Jersey Firefighters to rendezvous with The Commodore Clipper approximately 4 miles north of Alderney. The ideally suited Jersey Coastguard vessel will carry out ship to ship transfer of the firefighters before assisting with the firefighting exercise by utilising its high volume water monitors to boundary cool the casualty vessel.
Strike Teams from Guernsey and Hampshire will be transported by the Coastguard Helicopters Whiskey Bravo and India Juliet and winched aboard The Clipper.
15 UK MIRG teams are strategically located throughout the UK and Channel Islands and they provide cover for Fires, hazardous materials and industrial incidents occurring on vessels at sea. The teams are all volunteers from their respective Brigades who, in addition to learning practical ship firefighting, are trained in sea survival, helicopter underwater escape, helicopter operations, winching and use of the extensive equipment provided by the MCA and Fire Service specifically for the team.
In response to the developing cruise liner industry and the potential for greater visits to the bay of St Malo and the Channel Islands generally a joint multi agency exercise has been organised. Exercise Condex will be the first time that Jersey, Guernsey and Hampshire have joined forces to take part in an inter agency exercise. All three Services have in place mutual assistance arrangements and the exercise will provide the opportunity to test the Service's equipment and communication compatibility.
Link to Incident - Marine Incident at Sea
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Jersey and Guernsey Fire and Rescue Services form Combined Team for Tackling Emergency Incidents at Sea.
Members of the States of Jersey and States of Guernsey Fire and Rescue Services have formed a combined team trained to deal with emergency incidents such as fire or chemical spillages which can occur on vessels at sea.
The Channel Island team form part of a larger, national organisation set up by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) under an initiative known as “ Sea of Change ”. The project, sponsored by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), was aimed at formalising and developing an integrated response from fire and rescue services which would assist the MCA in dealing with incidents involving fire, chemical hazards and rescue at sea. Incidents at sea are dealt with by specifically trained maritime response teams of firefighters drawn from brigades strategically located around the waters of the British Isles . These form the United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Services’ Maritime Incident Response Group.
Jersey and Guernsey Fire and Rescue Services have combined to form the Channel Islands response team as it was felt that between us we could provide the fifty trained personnel necessary to meet the MIRG team requirements. The rationale is that each coastal fire and rescue service forming part of the MIRG will provide the initial response to any maritime emergency occurring in their area, then call for further MIRG back up if the incident escalates. Although in the initial meetings it was felt that Jersey and Guernsey would be unable to offer assistance to others due to our relatively small size, it has now been agreed that we will be full working partners, both giving and receiving support when required.
All the specialised equipment used by the MIRG teams, such as transit suits, life jackets, locator beacons, short term air supply units carried while using helicopter transportation and satellite communications is standardised throughout the UK and is supplied to MIRG teams by the MCA.
Training for teams is also standardised and both Jersey and Guernsey firefighters have attended two day sea survival and helicopter underwater escape training courses at Warsash Maritime Centre in Hampshire. The “highlight” of the course involves team members strapped into a helicopter simulator and being submersed and fully inverted in a deep water tank; the aim being to demonstrate the correct procedures to be carried out when evacuating a ditched helicopter that has become fully submersed. Following the evacuation drills training focuses on sea survival procedures which included abandonment of a vessel, launching a life raft, raft capsize drills and medical aspects of survival.
Helicopter familiarisation training has also been carried out with aircraft from RAF St Mawgan and this year the Coastguard helicopter Whiskey Bravo, which is based on the Solent, will be coming to Jersey to carry out further training with the Channel Island MIRG team.
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February 5th 2004
