NORTH-EAST maritime experts have sparked an international fire safety collaboration into life in Africa. Staff at South Shields Marine School (SSMS) have provided vital technical know-how to help Kenya’s navy build its first specialist fire-fighting training centre. They have also donated important operational kit – including breathing apparatus and two 16- person life rafts – to bolster the lifesaving initiative. Their work is part of a joint British and Danish armed forces project to improve Kenya’s naval capabilities, keep its sailors safe – and boost international co-operation. Once operational, which could be later this year, the facility will help seafarers learn how to fight fires in dangerous enclosed spaces, potentially saving lives and craft.
Deanna Bogdanovic, Muswell Business
Deanna Bogdanovic, Muswell Business.
- Credit: Deanna Bogdanovic
This year has been singular, a time of extremes.
Ringing in the new year is a cause for celebration, for spending time with friends and family though we might not be able to do that as we used to, and for looking back.
Nobody could have predicted 2020 to be the year that it has turned out to be.
It began with hopes of a renaissance of the roaring 20s, of optimistic experimentation and of a new decade heralding change.
What we did not expect was that that global change was going to be enforced by a global pandemic.