Emergency ship fire drill at Foynes Port
A simulated fire and rescue drill simulating a fire on a ship in Ireland’s Shannon Estuary was held this week.
Limerick County Fire & Rescue Service, with the assistance of Shannon Foynes Port Company and Celtic Tugs Ltd, hosted the Ship and Ports Course at Ireland’s second largest port operation at Foynes in County Limerick.
A number of exercises were carried out during the course, which involved ten firefighters and officers from stations across the County boarding ships to deal with simulated fire and rescue related scenarios.
Shannon Foynes Port Company operates Ireland’s busiest deepwater bulk cargo handling port facilities at Foynes. The company has statutory jurisdiction over all marine activities on a 500km2 area on the Shannon Estuary, stretching from Kerry Head and Loop Head (Clare) to Limerick City.
According to senior assistance chief fire officer Carl Weaver, “This course was designed to train our firefighters in dealing with incidents aboard the wide range of ship types using the Shannon Estuary every day.”
Limerick County Fire and Rescue Service has run in excess of 70 courses in the past 12 months alone, including training models focusing on compartment fire behaviour, water and cardiac first responder, road traffic collisions, winching operations, working at heights, and hazardous materials.
Mr. Weaver emphasised the importance of raising staff training levels throughout the Service.
“The roles and responsibilities of Service staff are many and varied. Therefore, continuous training is required to ensure the Service responds to and deals with emergency and rescue incidents with maximum efficiency.”
