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Displaying items by tag: Small fire

Dublin based operator, Irish Ferries has confirmed that one of its UK-France service ferries had encountered difficulties yesterday (3 March) evening following a small fire that broke out on board at 5.30pm.

The ferry company in a statement said the crew on board the 163m long Isle of Innisfree "were alerted to a small fire in the ship's engine room while the ship was sailing from Dover to Calais".

The 199I built ferry is one of three that Irish Ferries operate on the English Channel and where the 28,838 gross tonnage ferry had departed the port in Kent at 5pm.

The statement added that its crews train regularly to deal with incidents at sea and "the fire has now been extinguished".

At the time of the incident the Cypriot flagged Isle of Innisfree was carrying 94 passengers and 89 crew and that all are safe and accounted for.

The UK coastguard was informed and dispatched three lifeboats as a precautionary measure.

More from RTE News on the ferry that arrived safely into Calais after a tug according to BBC News had towed the ferry into port. 

Afloat adds that while the Isle of Innisfree is off service, the route is reduced from three ferries down to a just a single ship the Isle of Inishmore. This is because Irish Ferries third Dover-Calais vessel, Isle of Inisheer is away for dry-docking at Harland & Wolff, Belfast.

Isle of Innisfree is no stranger to the Strait of Dover having served originally as Prins Philip for Belgium operator, RMT on the Dover-Ostende route.

Since 1992 the ferry has changed ownership several times until the Irish company acquired the ferry from DFDS, a rival on the French route also served by P&O Ferries. 

Published in Irish Ferries

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.