A senior officer from Cornwall Fire Brigade is to head a government investigation into tackling fires on ships at sea.

In the past five years, the number of fire brigades across the country willing to deal with ship fires has reduced by almost a half.

Fighting fires on ships is not part of the statutory duty of UK fire brigades which support coastal areas.

Divisional officer Mervyn Kettle begins a two-year secondment to head the project which will provide a nationwide response strategy.

Firefighters at ship

Since 1997, the number of brigades providing sea cover has fallen to 10 across the UK.

The Cornish brigade has provided offshore firefighting for more than 50 years.

It fought one of the UK's worst ship fires when the Kukawa was towed into Falmouth docks in 1999 still ablaze.

Two weeks ago the brigade dealt with a fire on board a Turkish ship 30 miles off the Cornish coast.

Mr Kettle will head the project with a colleague from Kent to define a nationwide response to tackle transport and cargo vessel fires.

Coastal response

He said: "We've been tasked by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and our chief officers on how coastal fire brigades respond to ship fires around our coasts.

"There are a lot of areas where there is not an available brigade to respond. What we're hoping to do is come up with a good strategic response should a serious incident occur.

"It should also make it safer for firefighters in the future to deal with incidents."

The strategy will also involve the United Nations International Maritime Organisation.