Alta municipality has the only rescue diving service north of Bodø. They will cover Nord-Troms and all of Finnmark if a drowning accident occurs in the region. Due to a challenging municipal economy, Alta Frp proposes to close down this service. The reason for that is that, according to group leader in the party, Claus Jørstad, it is not a legally required service and because it is surface rescue that saves the most lives. – We think it can be a service that you can save money on. We also see that several other municipalities, including Tromsø, have canceled that service. According to Jørstad, it can be cut because it is an expensive service and not always life-saving as surface rescue is. Alta municipality is facing massive cuts and then they must consider cutting services that are not required by law, believes group leader in Alta Frp, Claus Jørstad. Photo: Liv Inger Somby / news Tromsø municipality decided to close down its diving service in January 2022. This was not recommended, but on the contrary it emphasized a great need for increased preparedness. – The need for a rescue diving service is assessed in the ongoing work with a new risk and vulnerability analysis. This should be ready during the autumn, says fire chief in Tromsø fire and rescue, Terje Hanssen. – Can lead to loss of life Fire chief for Alta fire and rescue, Frank Pettersen, reacts to cut proposals and is fully aware that this is an important service. – We have had incidents here and will have incidents in the future. If you put it down, it can quickly lead to loss of life. Fire chief for Alta fire and rescue, Frank Pettersen, says that they are paid for the work when they have to go out on assignments to other municipalities. Photo: Skule S. Isaksen / news He says that when such a service is already established, it costs the inhabitants of Alta around NOK 150,000 per year. If the service is shut down, it will cost a lot to start it up again. The state must step in. Deputy mayor in Alta municipality, Jan Martin Rishaug (Sp), agrees that money must be saved, but that there can be other solutions. – It is not a statutory task that we have to look at in the situation we are in, with the economy that we are in charge of. But it would be a declaration of bankruptcy to close down diving services in a municipality as large as Alta municipality. He says viere that here the state should step in so that no more such services are closed down. Deputy mayor in Alta municipality, Jan Martin Rishaug (Sp), personally believes that it is not the right place to save money, but that in the end it is the municipal council that makes the decision. Photo: Jonas Løken Estenstad / news – We save more people in water than in fire Alta is not the only municipality in Norway that is in danger of losing this preparedness. Fire chief for Kongsberg fire and rescue, Erik Rognli, says that he is afraid that they will also lose the service and he knows that other municipalities have the same challenge. – We usually say that we save more people in water than in fire. In 2022, we had 28 incidents where we were alerted to a person in water. And in 2023 we had 26 incidents. And there are more than we have building fires. Fire chief in Kongsberg fire and rescue, Erik Rognli, says that the diving service costs them around NOK 350,000 a year. Photo: Privat Furthermore, he says that the diving service is an important part of preparedness for their municipality and the neighboring municipalities where they are often asked to help. If they do not have the service, they must ask for help from Drammen or Oslo. – It will then take longer. And a message about people in water is a time-critical event. The Drammen region’s fire service will also be further burdened by the fact that we have to have their help more often. The importance of resources Department director of the Central Rescue Center (HRS) in northern Norway, Hanne H. Bergstad, says that it is the local resources that are most likely to be there in time when drowning accidents occur. – Today’s rescue diving preparedness with the distances HRS is responsible for in northern Norway is very challenging in terms of the time available to move diving resources to save lives. According to figures from the Rescue Company (RS), 79 people drowned in Norway in 2023. The number of drownings in Norway so far this year is 41 people. The challenges of the future In 2022, the government set up a working group which was to carry out a review of the fire and rescue services in the future, which included rescue diving. The report says that it is up to each individual municipality to decide whether they should have a diving service. It was also proposed to establish a regional collaboration between fire and rescue services within the geographical areas of the 110 central, so that a rescue diving service can then be a collaboration between several municipalities. According to the Directorate for Social Security and Emergency Preparedness (DSB), the report was handed over to Minister of Justice and Emergency Preparedness Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) in June last year. State Secretary John-Erik Vika (Sp) in the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness says that the report was the basis for a report to the Storting that the government presented in March. – With this announcement, the government is making arrangements for Norway to have a fire and rescue service that is able to handle future challenges, including climate change, both within its own sectoral responsibility and in cooperation with other emergency agencies and emergency response actors. Published 25/07/2024, at 07.18
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The rescue diving service in Alta is at risk of closure – news Troms and Finnmark
