Friday, April 4, 2014 - 11:03 by ce-press
Over 70 representatives from the city, port and emergency bodies of Stavanger gathered for a tabletop emergency exercise at the end of March.
An escalating cabin fire on board the 3,800-passenger cruiseship ‘Ultimate Dream’ was the scenario. It coincided with the annual food festival which attracted 20,000 locals to the port area.
Thick, black smoke was spreading to the public, as the captain and the port started evacuating the ship to a nearby, pre-defined assembly station in the city's concert house.
A large number of passengers, crew and the public were treated and then taken to Stavanger University Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The emergency exercise proved that the cooperation between the different participants was very good. “There are still some details to be sorted out, when it comes to calibrating the different bodies' emergency plans with each other,” commented Anders Bang-Andersen, director of cruise development City of Stavanger, while adding: “Still, if such an incident occurred the day after the exercise the outcome would probably have been quite satisfactory.”
Intensive planning for emergencies is among the annual preparations done in the Stavanger area, before the cruise season starts for real. The Stavanger area also hosts the headquarters for the Norwegian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway.
Cruise calls to the Norwegian port will number 165 this year bringing about 250,000 passengers compared to 2007 when there were just 57 calls and 64,000 passengers.
