Fire ferry limps into port

Two RAF helicopters and a Nimrod were scrambled

LONDON -- A cross-Channel ferry has limped into a Belgian port after a blaze in the ship's engine room was extinguished.

Hundreds of passengers donned lifejackets and were sent to muster stations to prepare for evacuation from Norsea, a P&O ferry, as coastguards scrambled lifeboats, three RAF aircraft and a Belgian helicopter.

Nine other vessels and a second P&O ferry were on standby to help the rescue but an evacuation was not needed after the ship's automatic fire systems pumped the engine room with CO2 to douse the flames.

The Norsea engines were restarted at 0800 GMT on Monday -- about seven hours after the fire was spotted -- and the ship resumed its journey from Hull, eastern England to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

The UK Press Association reported it was the second fire on the ship in three weeks.

Two crew were injured in the first fire which broke out in the vessel's funnel uptake area, PA said.

Once passengers have disembarked in Zeebrugge engineers will begin assessing the damage and whether the ship needs to be taken out of service for repairs, a P&O spokesman said.

Two RAF Sea King helicopters were scrambled from Wattisham in Suffolk and Leconfield, North Yorkshire, to join the rescue bid.

The ferry was sailing from Hull to Zeebrugge

A rescue Nimrod from RAF Kinloss in Moray, Scotland, was preparing to join the rescue, along with another helicopter from Belgium.

Lifeboats from Gorlston, Lowestoft and Caister have been sent to the scene.

Nine other vessels at sea in the area, mainly tugs that service nearby oil and gas rigs, have been put on standby.

A second P&O ferry was also diverted to the area to assist. A team of firefighters from Suffolk Fire Brigade was also airlifted to the ferry by RAF helicopter.

Clark said ferries like the Norsea are designed in such a way that if there is a fire in the engine room, the room is shut down automatically and CO2 pumped in to extinguish the fire.

"That smothers the fire but you then have to wait before you can open the doors again to check for hotspots as this supply of oxygen would just re-ignite the fire," he said.

The ferry was on its usual route between Hull and Zeebrugge when the fire broke out. The weather in the area was reported to be calm.

The Norsea was launched in 1986 by the Queen Mother. It is a vessel of 31,000 tonnes and normally has a crew of 107. It is 179 metres long and 25 metres wide, with a passenger capacity of 1,250.

The Norsea can also carry 850 cars or 180 lorries.

It has 446 cabins, bars, a restaurant and dance floors, shops and children's playroom.

It also has two 24-person lifeboats, four larger lifeboats and 44 inflatable liferafts.