Northern firefighters train in a swimming pool to intervene in the event of a disaster at sea

These are firefighters specializing in major disasters at sea, we're talking about that of a liner catching fire or a chemical leak on a ship. In the Nord department, only 15 of them have received training allowing them to be thrown on board these boats, IBNBS for intervention on board ships and boats in maritime security. On November 21, they were able to train in the former Total des Flandres refinery, in Mardick, transformed into a training center.

Emergency landing

The training consisted of successfully evacuating to safety a helicopter coming to rescue a boat at sea, in the situation where this helicopter itself found itself in difficulty, and would be forced to land urgently. Everything is larger than life: the cabin, the swimming pool…Firefighters must learn to get out through windows, and swim away. “Absorb the impact, identify the emergency exit. And we are completely upside down”, explains Romain, firefighter in Lille. “The weight of the blades will naturally overturn the helicopter on contact with water. There is technique, there is self-control. You have to know how to keep calm and hold your breath”he said.

Fire, chemical leak

In the distance, Cyril Gérard, the IBNBS firefighter in the department, observes attentively. “For the moment, the firefighters of the North have not been confronted with this type of assistance, but our colleagues from Pas-de-Calais have. It could be a leak of chemicals on a container or in a heavy goods vehicle, a fire on board a passenger ship…” he said. When we know that The Nord-Pas-de-Calais Strait is one of the busiest straitsand ships are getting bigger and bigger, this type of disaster can happen at any time. “This disaster will require the ship to be received at the dock at the port of Dunkirk, the idea is to prepare this reception as best as possible”adds the referent.

In the swimming pool of the old refinery, everything is larger than life, except the color of the water: the firefighters know well that in the event of a real intervention at sea, if they must succeed in extricate from a helicopter, the task will be much more complicated because it seems that we see nothing there.