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Commendations for Terry and team
Tuesday July 08th 2008. Posted: 09:00
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Terry with his two commendations
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An Openreach domain coach has received two commendations for his work as a member of the Beer coastguard team, after the container ship MSC Napoli ran aground off the Devon coast at Branscombe.
Terry Hoare, who is based at Exeter engineering centre, and the Beer coastguards are still involved with the clean-up, which also earned them a team commendation. Station officer Terry said: “I received a commendation for meritorious service from the chief coastguard Peter Dymond, and Devon and Cornwall police presented me with a Commander’s Commendation for leadership and professionalism.” When the Napoli first went aground in January last year, Terry and his team swung into action. He said: “BT was great and allowed me leave in that first week to deal with the situation. "We started by locating and identifying each container that was ashore, which took us through the night. Then, when the news broke and crowds were gathering, we assisted the police with traffic control, as Branscombe was gridlocked. We then moved on to helping with our local knowledge and guarding the beach to try and prevent scavengers reaching the containers.” With the joint efforts of 50 police officers and 60 coastguards, the beach was eventually made secure and the salvage team and security services could take over and begin the recovery. Terry said: “As a team we maintained a presence on the beach permanently for the first four days to assist the security firm, and we have been called back on numerous occasions to deal with debris washed up and reports of oil polluting the shore. To date the team has amassed 1,079 hours dealing with MSC Napoli.” He added: “I am very proud of my team as it was not an easy situation to deal with. When we were guarding the beach a car drove straight through one of our roadblocks, which could have seriously injured people, and we had to put up with a lot of verbal abuse.”
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Last updated:
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