Jan, yes the firefighters are from the county fire and rescue services. MIRG was set up in 2006 to mitigate government cuts resulting in a reduction of assets declared to assist in fires at sea. It consists of teams around the country with lightweight gear for flying out by helicopter and extra training to deal with the special circumstances of fires onboard ship. This would be of particular relevance to fires onboard container ships, tankers, bulkers, etc, which operate with tiny crews who would quickly be overwhelmed by a fire breaking out. Also to assist ferries and passenger ships, which have much bigger crews and all spaces covered by fire detectors, sprays and drenchers but have had many disastrous fires over the years.
I was asked onboard one ferry back in the nineties to produce a plan of the ship showing general details, specific fire fighting installations, lifeboat and marine evacuation system slides, etc. This all had to be on a single sheet of A4 which caused a lot of head scratching. It was lodged with Dover Coastguard for faxing to the fire and rescue service in the event of assistance being required. They would then depart from Maidstone to rendezvous at Manston with an SAR helicopter from their base at Wattisham in Suffolk. Then fly out to the ship to be winched down.
The Emergency Towing Vessels mentioned above are also to be dispensed with, removing another valuable asset in the high pressure water cannon which they carry.
Emergency Plan for M.V. Stena Invicta
Our local ETV, the Anglian Monarch. Believe the French are having to transfer one of their ETV's to take her place.
http://www.maritimejournal.com/features101/tugs,-towing,-pollution-and-salvage/tugs,-towing-and-salvage/anglian_monarch_takes_cruise_ship_in_tow
