On June 5, the North-Western Basin Branch and the Main Directorate of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry for St. Petersburg held civil defense drills in the facilities of the branch in the seaports of Big Port St Petersburg and Ust Luga, as well as in administrative buildings of the Vyborg-Vysotsk and Kaliningrad directorates of the branch.

The drills also involved officers of fire-fighting units of the Main Directorate of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, FSBI “The Administration of the Baltic Sea”, JSC Seaport of St Petersburg, the St Petersburg Water Transport Line Internal Affairs Department of Russia’s Interior Affairs Ministry and other organizations.

By the legend of the drills fire-fighters of the North-Western Basin Branch jointly with units of the 19^th and 42^nd fire-fighting formations of the Main Directorate of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry for St. Petersburg trained tasks aimed at extinguishing a conditional fire on the Ivan Kruzenshtern icebreaker. During the drills, crewmembers of the icebreaker and rescuers of the Main Directorate of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry for St. Petersburg evacuated conditional injured people from the vessel on fire.

At the same time, officers of fire-fighting units in interaction with the fire-fighting unit of the Federal State-Owned Enterprise of Emergencies Ministry, Detachment No 37 of the Border Guard Service for Leningrad Region, also joined the efforts to extinguish a conditional fire at Administrative Building No 160 at the motor railway ferry complex in the seaport of Ust Luga.

Moreover, employees of the branch were evacuated from administrative buildings in St Petersburg and the Vyborg-Vysotsk and Kaliningrad directorates by the signal “Fire Service Training”. The units also trained personnel’s primary actions aimed at extinguishing the fire and rendering first premedical aid.

During the drills, the branch’s control duty desk maintained permanent contact with the headquarters of the drills, provided information and interacted with all vessels that took part in the drills. They also ensured navigation safety in the water area of the seaport of Big Port St Petersburg.

In view of the results of the drills the actions taken by crewmembers of the Ivan Kruzenshtern icebreaker and employees of the branch were highly assessed by fire-fighting, law enforcement and professional rescuers, as well as head of the drills – director of the North-Western Basin Branch Sergei Pylin.