On the morning of Friday 28 July, a port fire drill was held, organized by the Coast Guard of Marina di Carrara in collaboration with the Provincial Command of the Fire Brigade of Massa-Carrara. The drill is part of the periodic training activities that the Maritime Authority coordinates to verify the efficiency of the port fire plan and to test the efficiency of the planned intervention procedures, always keeping the list of available human and material resources updated. The scenario hypothesized for this drill involved the involvement of a local shipyard, as an important production facility operating within the port of Marina di Carrara: the drill was activated by the Operations Room of the Port Authority of Marina di Carrara at 11:00, immediately after receiving a telephone report, from the manager of the shipyard “Ornic Nautica Srl”, of a fire on board a fiberglass vessel moored within the docks of the port of Marina di Carrara in order to carry out maintenance work. In a very short time, the safety procedures provided for by the port fire prevention plan were implemented under the coordination of the operations room of the Port Authority of Marina di Carrara: the fire prevention equipment of the dock managers was immediately prepared and the operational rescue units of the Fire Brigade, the National Health Service 118 of Massa-Carrara and the operations room of the Single Emergency Number of the Tuscany Region were alerted. The Maritime Authority immediately ordered the dispatch of land patrols to the site of the fire and the exit of the M/V CP 554 to provide fire prevention assistance from the sea, to evacuate any people on board the vessel and to prohibit traffic entering/exiting the port; in addition, the intervention of the port services units was arranged, specifically the tugboat “Francesco Neri”, for the possible removal of the burning naval unit in order to prevent the fire from spreading to the numerous boats moored nearby. During the exercise, the team of the Marina di Carrara Fire Brigade, which intervened with two land vehicles, perfected the containment and extinguishing operations of the fire, already started by the on-board personnel and the dock concessionaires. The exercise – which was aimed at testing the level of training of the personnel, as well as monitoring the efficiency and functionality of the fire-fighting equipment immediately and directly available in the port area – ended at 12:00 with the complete extinguishing of the fire and the reclamation of the flooded areas of the ship, promoting cooperation between the port operators and the institutions involved in the management of port emergencies. The Coast Guard Operations Room of Marina di Carrara has constantly provided updates to the Prefecture of Massa-Carrara and to the Operations Room of the Maritime Directorate of Tuscany, for the necessary security coordination. At the end of the exercise, a the briefing with all the participating actors, during which the technical and operational aspects that emerged during the training activity were analyzed. The Commander of the Port Authority – Frigate Captain Monica Selene MAZZARESE – thanked all the public and private entities that contributed to the success of the exercise, the execution of which was fully satisfactory with respect to the emergency plans and protocols in force.
