Fire at sea and Exercise Nero

摘要

David Anderson reports on some of the interesting papers presented at RINA's recent conference, and on an associated visit to the ferry Stena Empereur to witness a fire-at-sea exercise. Last November an international conference on Fire at Sea was held at Church House, Westminster, London. This event, which was organised by RINA in association with Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate, was attended by 154 delegates who considered a total of 19 papers devoted to this most important of subjects. On the day before the conference, 55 delegates attended Exercise Nero on board the ro-ro ferry Stena Empereur during one of her regular trips between Dover and Calais. The exercise, one of approximately 12 undertaken each year, was designed to test the Kent Fire Brigade's capabilities and response in dealing with offshore firefighting operations onboard a ship at sea. The anchor-handling tug Port Talbot, one of two government-sponsored tugs on permanent standby in the Dover Straits, also took part in the exercise.