Fort Lauderdale, FL, January 30, 2011 – RESOLVE Marine Group and T&T Bisso have announced their coalition for Marine Firefighting services in U.S. waters. This agreement combines both companies’ extensive firefighting infrastructure to produce overlapping coverage and higher volume firefighting cap- acity throughout U.S. waters. This coalition was crafted specifically to help tank vessel operators fully comply with the latest Oil Pollution Act of 1990 regulations that will be effective on February 22, 2011.
The regulations require that all tanker and tank barge owners operating in U.S. waters update their existing USCG-approved Vessel Response Plan (VRP) and certify pre-contracted firefighting services, equipment, and trained response personnel. During the past three years, both RESOLVE and T&T Bisso developed comprehensive in-house firefighting response systems which included the purchase, not leasing, of custom-built and state- of- the- art equipment to meet their clients’ response needs.
“The new regulations required a substantial capital investment just to meet the minimum planning requirements,†said Captain Farhat Imam, COO of RESOLVE. “RESOLVE talked with fellow American Salvage Association (ASA) member T&T Bisso and both agreed that meeting the minimum just wasn’t enough. By combining and strategically locating our firefighting equipment – equipment owned and operated by T&T Bisso and RESOLVE — we can assure tanker operators the best marine firefighting coverage in the U.S. â€
Mauricio Garrido, President of T&T Bisso, said “Shipboard fires don’t occur that often, but when they do you must have the best gear and trained personnel available. The T&T Bisso and RESOLVE team achieves just that. The decision to pool resources was catalyzed by several tanker operators who opted to list both RESOLVE and T&T Bisso so as to ensure the best possible coverage and the reluctance of most public fire departments to support the tanker industry. We know that – together – T&T Bisso and RESOLVE have the most concrete and realistic coverage available.â€
The RESOLVE and T&T BISSO coalition has been well received by USCG and is a positive outcome of the regulatory process. Neither company reduced their outlay of equipment. Instead, where a port was double-covered, equipment was moved to outlying ports to provide faster and more effective coverage. The RESOLVE and T&T Bisso coalition pre-positions 45 high-volume marine fire pumps and makes available over two million gallons of firefighting foam throughout all USCG Captain of the Port Zones.
