Last updated at 11:07, Thursday, 17 May 2012

SPARKS from a steel cutting torch caused a boat in Whitehaven harbour to catch fire yesterday (Wednesday).

Emergency services were called out to the blaze on the top deck of an ex-fishing boat  at around 2.30pm.

Fire crews, the police and coastguards worked together to extinguish the fire and make the area safe.

Mark Smith, incident commander for the fire service, said: “The incident involved a 50 foot ex-fishing boat which is in the process of
being decommissioned. The fire started because of the use of an oxy-propane cutting torch which had been used to cut the material of
the superstructure of the boat. The sparks caught a quantity of combustible material and the fire spread.”

The man who had been decommissioning the boat managed to get to safety and was uninjured.

Mr Smith said: “It’s a very uncommon for anyone to decommission a boat here. We would advise people never to use oxy-propane cutting torches near any combustibles.”

First published at 11:06, Thursday, 17 May 2012
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk