Fire service conducts harbour rescue exercise

The fire services conducted a rescue exercise on a recreational vessel at the Latchi harbour on Wednesday, simulating a scenario of a worker being trapped onboard the blazing vessel.

The fire services spokesman, Andreas Kettis, explained that the exercise was carried with personnel from the Polis Chrysochous firefighting station to evaluate their preparedness.

“It ensures that appropriate procedures can be applied and the knowledge and skills of the first response teams can be evaluated,” Kettis explained.

He added that it also helps to ensure that all essential services are well coordinated in such scenarios.

The simulation involved the firefighting station receiving an alert that a fire had broken out on a vessel during maintenance earlier in the morning. Some efforts were made to extinguish the fire by a team from the port authority before the arrival of the firefighting services.

According to the exercise, a worker performing welding work went missing inside the burning vessel. Therefore, Kettis said, there was an immediate response with two fire trucks from Polis Chrysochous fire station with further assistance from the ambulance service, while the coast guard and the maritime police were also informed.

Polis Chrysochous station then reached out to other nearby stations to put them on alert should backup be required.