Russian rescuers to drill tsunami response at Barents Rescue exercise

Large-scale international exercise of rescue services ‘Barents Rescue 2013’ will be held in Norway on Tuesday. It will involve more than two thousand rescuers from the countries of the Barents region. Irina Gretskaya, spokeswoman for Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s (EMERCOM) main department for the Murmansk Oblast told Itar-Tass that 20 specialists are taking part in the exercise from the Russian side. “Rescuers of the Murmansk rescue search and rescue team, a task force of the EMERCOM main department for the Murmansk Oblast departed for Norway to take part in the exercise. They will use special gear and equipment and five vehicles,” the spokeswoman said. The ‘Barents Rescue’ exercise is held every two years, alternately in each of the four countries of the Barents region. The first maneuvers were held in Sweden in 2001. Then the exercise was held in Norway and Finland. In 2009, the ‘Barents Rescue’ exercise took place in Russia’s Murmansk Oblast. Then the rescuers drilled five different emergency response scenarios, including radioactive contamination of the environment and an oil spill. The current exercise will last for three days. It will focus on drilling rescue operations in the aftermath of a tsunami. “This exercise is necessary so that rescuers from different states, not even speaking a foreign language, could learn how to successfully interact with each other and thus fulfill all tasks assigned to them,” said the EMERCOM representative.