The inaugural meeting of the CACFOA ~ Offshore Firefighting Practitioners Group took place in Lincoln on the 30th June 1999. Nineteen UK Brigades were represented along with key representatives from SAR agencies and the MCA.
Several presentations were delivered including issues on PPE; SAR activities; Coastguard arrangements and a case history.
The afternoon period was predominantly dedicated to an open forum to allow discussion to expand the primary topic of interagency operations. It was agreed that Kent, Hampshire and Cornwall Fire Brigades would work together to produce a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the use of helicopters, which would eventually be provided to all agencies. They will also look at the initiative of 'sharing' resources both for operations and training. This would hopefully then become a 'model' for the UK.
Each Brigade was also encouraged to introduce a Marine Operations Group (MOG) which would then be a focal point within individual Brigades for information exchange, etc., with communication being generated via FINDS or Internet.
Future meetings will be held every six months, the next to take place in January 2000