USNS Montford Point Welcomes MIRT Aboard to Conduct Firefighting Training

Photo By Hendrick Dickson | Students from the Port of Virginia's Maritime Incident Response Team (MIRT) extinguish a training simulator on the flight deck aboard USNS Montford Point (T-ESD 1). The training was part of a weeklong MIRT symposium where more than 120 firefighters from various converged in the region to train and collaborate maritime incident repsone. (U.S. Navy photo by Hendrick Dickson).  

NORFOLK, VA, UNITED STATES

05.18.2022

Story by Hendrick Dickson 

USN Military Sealift Command

The Military Sealift Command (MSC) ship USNS Montford Point (T-ESD 1) welcomed more than 120 Port of Virginia Maritime Incident Response Team (MIRT) students onboard to conduct firefighting training May 18 for the 30th Annual International Marine Fire Fighting School.

Firefighters from the local area and other cities around the U.S., as well as countries such as Panama, Singapore, Germany and the Netherlands, converged in Hampton Roads to engage with MIRT on shipboard firefighting techniques and maritime incident responses.

According to the Port of Virginia, MIRT promotes maritime response capabilities in the Port of Virginia through an ongoing program of training, drills, resources and continued support and coordination through port partners.

“What makes MIRT important is we’re able to coordinate with all of our agencies, and get our cities to come together as one,” said MIRT Instructor Chuck Mullen. “Where some other ports may have one city that covers its area, we do it all in collaboration. We communicate and train together. That’s the importance of MIRT - especially here in Hampton Roads.”

The weeklong school included classroom and practical instructions; ships tours and various shipboard firefighting training scenarios. Montford Point provided a platform for a fire simulation on its deck with the ship’s crew lifting a Navy Regional Mid Atlantic training simulator onboard to help provide students with a realistic setting.

The expeditionary transfer dock vessel’s primary mission is to serve as a “Pier at Sea” to support the Marines. It has a length of 785-feet, it is 164-feet across the beam and it has a heavy lift capacity of 40,000 metric tons.
“We don’t have a lot of experience on a heavy lift, but we use the same techniques,” said Mullen. “What’s nice about Montford Point is it’s very open, everything is easy to maneuver and it’s lower to the water level. In this scenario, even though we’re still coming over the side, we don’t have to climb as high.”

Montford Point Captain, Joshua Jordan, said he welcomed the opportunity to work with MIRT and thinks joining forces helps strengthen partnerships between MSC and the firefighting community.

“We are proud to be able to provide a platform for the responders to continue to improve their abilities to protect our vessels,” said Jordan. “It also gives us the opportunity to get some face time with our firefighters to ask questions and learn from them so we can improve our own response. We love to support these events whenever we get the chance.”

• Date Taken: 05.18.2022
• Date Posted: 05.20.2022 12:23
• Story ID: 421177
• Location: NORFOLK, VA, US