Exercise Diamond – Ship Fire Training
Specialist Rescue & Marine Response Teams from Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service participated in the largest live maritime training exercise held in Northern Ireland on Sunday to test operational response to a major maritime search, rescue and recovery incident on Belfast Lough.
The staged collision between a passenger vessel and a commercial ferry was called “Exercise Diamond”. There were simulated fires on board the vessels and people trapped on-board the vessels to further intensify the difficulty for the various agencies responding to the mock up “major incident”.
This was a colossal operation including – Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) Marine Response Team, NIFRS Special Rescue Team, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Belfast Coastguard, the Irish Coastguard, the Royal Life Boat Institution, the Ambulance Service, the Police Service and other agencies.
The Chief Fire Officer, Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue said:
“This public safety enhancing exercise was the largest Maritime training exercise ever held in Northern Ireland and it allowed us to test our response, command, communications, tactics and interoperability between partner agencies within Northern Ireland Waters.”
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