The emergency services on Arran were scrambled to a boat on fire in Lamlash Bay last Wednesday night.
Arran lifeboat was launched just before 10pm and the fire service, police and HM Coastguard were also tasked in the multi-agency response, with representatives located on shore close to the vessel in a bid to establish what had happened and if there was any further danger.
The RLNI B-class Atlantic 85 lifeboat, Rachel Hedderwick, was best placed to get as close as was safe and made the short journey to the location given by the Coastguard about half way between Cordon and Kings Cross and found a small fishing vessel with smoke billowing from it. It was immediately evident no-one was on board the vessel and the crew determined that there were no casualties in the surrounding water.
In these situations, there is little to be done to extinguish the fire and the sole priority is to ensure that any persons on board are rescued and that the vessel isn’t a risk to anything else in the immediate vicinity.
On arrival back at the station, the shore crew made the boat ready for service again and headed at 11.30pm.