Scrap boat fire

Firefighters extinguished a boat fire in Mayland last night. 

Crews were called to The Esplanade, Mayland just before 8pm to reports of a boat on fire. 

Firefighters worked to extinguish the fire by 9:12pm and believe it was caused accidentally when works were being carried out on the boat earlier in the day.

Watch Manager John Maddocks from Tillingham Fire Station said: “Thank you to the callers for their quick thinking to try to contain the fire. Luckily the boat yard has an old fire appliance for washing down the jetties and ramps. 

“Crews evacuated people nearby before getting to work inside the boat in Breathing Apparatus. Firefighters did well to manage the risk to the public and themselves. We’d like to thank our coastguard colleagues who turned up to support with their mud rescue equipment to support our teams in case they were needed.

“We’d also like to praise our control room for their quick work in mapping us to the area as it was quite remote and the caller didn’t have many details of where it was.

“We’d recommend everyone downloads what3words, it’s a free app that helps to pinpoint your location. It can be really handy if you’re in a remote area to help emergency services get to you as quickly as possible.”