Fishing boat blaze sparks Douglas lifeboat call

RNLI, Coastguard and Steam Packet alerted

Douglas RNLI was called to a near-catastrophe over the weekend, when a fishing vessel caught fire off the Island's coast.

The lifeboat was deployed around 8:30PM on Sunday on command of the British Coastguard, after a mayday alert from the 21-metre vessel which found itself ablaze around 13 miles south of Douglas.

It was initially considered so serious that the Steam Packet's fast craft Manannan, as well as a rescue helicopter, were put on standby to assist.

Fortunately, the fishing boat's seven-man crew managed to tame the fire before the RNLI vessel Sir William Hillary escorted it back to King Edward Pier.

Nobody was hurt in the incident.