Östra Götaland Fire & Rescue Service Operates in Challenging Coastal Area (1/2)

Östra Götaland Fire & Rescue Service is dedicated to saving people, property and the environment in the event of accidents and crises. Its mission is to improve the safety of society around the clock, all year round. Östra Götaland Fire & Rescue Service is the Project Partner number 8 and one of the “Operative Competent Authorities” in the OIL SPILL project. 

Östra Götaland is on the southeast coast of Sweden. The operational area of the Rescue Service comprises of five municipalities with a total of 16 rescue stations and four fire brigades. The area is characterized by a vast archipelago with many small islands.    

Head of Operations Per Nisser knows that this environment is challenging for oil spill response. A high level of readiness and cooperation is required from the various authorities involved in the rescue activities, also in oil spill response. 

“Protection and decontamination of such a large and topographically varied area is demanding, both initially but also over a long period of time. Moreover, several authorities with different jurisdictions are responsible for different parts and different phases of environmental protection in oil spill response. We face the same challenges as everyone else in these cases. There is often a need for a lot of material, equipment and personnel that are not available locally. These challenges must be solved through greater coordination of national resources, but also within the Nordic countries.”

According to Per, the request to join OIL SPILL was posed at a convenient moment: 

“In the summer of 2018, a big vessel called Makassar Highway went aground outside our coast. They had to tow the ship to a safe harbour and several tonnes of oil leaked out in the sea. There was a decontamination phase in which our Fire & Rescue Service was involved, so the OIL SPILL project came very suitable.”

Indeed, already in 2019, Östra Götaland Fire & Rescue Service organized the Konrad oil spill response exercise. Several OIL SPILL Partners attended the exercise as observers.