Successful MIRG Full Scale Exercise

We have had a successful two day exercise on 11 and 12 October. The MIRGs had to deal with a truck on fire, an incident with hazardous liquids and a person trapped. One of the goals of the exercise was to test the team’s tasking and operational procedures. With nearly 500 participants, including observers from 15 EU and neighboring countries, and the deployment of five ships and three helicopters, this was one of the largest maritime incident response exercises ever held in European waters. The teams from the four countries showed they can handle long lasting incidents. The exercise staff looks back on a successful drill.

Want to know more? Than come to our Final Conference in Bruges on Wednesday 23 November 2017. The programme will be published here shortly.

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MIRG EX is an international joint partnership. Safety Region Zeeland (NL), which brings together crisis management, fire fighters and medical assistance, is lead partner. The other partners in the project are: the Fire Brigades of Antwerp, Beveren and Ghent (BE). These brigades are linked to important international ports, that accommodate large chemical production plants. Being able to effectively fight fires on board ships is simply essential. In addition to the fire brigades, the Federal Organisation of Public Civil Assistance in Brugge, the Agency for Maritime and Coastal Services-Shipping Assistance Division and the Maatschappij van de Brugse Zeehaven nv (Zeebrugge Port Authority) are partners in the MIRG-EX project. The French Service départemental d’incendie et de secours de Pas-de-Calais and the English Kent Fire and Rescue Service complete the partnership. Both are confronted with heavy traffic on the Channel and the North Sea. An incident may be just around the corner, but this doesn’t mean it can be easily reached let alone be dealt with. Working with similar teams on both shores, reduces will help to reduce response time.