Watch: Fire on naval vessel in Cork could have been catastrophic 

Cork City Fire Service attending a ship fire in Rushbrook Dockyard today with Cork County Fire Service. Picture: Cork City Fire Service.

Firefighters prevented a potentially catastrophic explosion on board an Irish naval vessel after a fire broke out near its engine room.

An investigation is underway to establish the exact cause of the blaze which erupted in a store room below deck on the LÉ Niamh (P52) as she was undergoing routine maintenance at Cork Dockyard in Rushbrooke, near Cobh, Co Cork, on Saturday.

“While a full investigation into the cause of the fire will be conducted, it is thought to have started in a stores compartment adjacent to where cutting work was being carried out by engineers,” a Defence Forces spokesman said.

It has been established that the stores compartment is close to the ship’s engine room where marine-grade diesel and other oils were stored.

Explosion risk

There were fears that the blaze in such a confined space, coupled with the fact that the ship’s steel superstructure could intensify and spread the heat quickly, would affect the engine room and spark an explosion.

There were just four crew on duty watch on board when the fire was spotted around 12.15pm.

The duty watch carried out ‘first aid fire-fighting’ to contain the fire and the alarm was raised with fire control at 12.26pm which tasked several units of the Cork County Fire Service to the incident.

They evacuated the vessel and handed the scene over to one unit from the Cobh brigade, backed by four units from the Midleton fire brigade.

They were soon backed up by crews from the Cork City Fire Brigade, who brought extra supplies of firefighting foam.

They were given information very early on in the response to the incident about the nature and location of potentially dangerous or hazardous materials onboard.

The firefighting teams had to rotate their time fighting the blaze below deck, given the intense heat and the confined nature of the space in which the blaze was being fought.

A spokesman said they saturated the area with vast quantities of foam and managed to bring it under control.

Pictures posted by the fire service on its social media channels later showed firefighters on deck covered head to toe in foam.

There were no injuries to naval service personnel or to Cork dockyard staff.

The LÉ Niamh entered service in 2001 as an offshore patrol vessel.

High profile

The ship and her crew have been involved in several high-profile missions over the years, including its 2002 resupply mission to Irish troops serving on UN peacekeeping duties in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

She later visited Hong Kong, Incheon, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Penang over a four-month period as part of the Irish government's overseas trade promotion strategy.

During this trip, she became the first Irish naval service vessel to both transit the Suez Canal and cross the Equator.

The vessel played a key role in Operation Seabight off the Irish coast in November 2008 when it was used to approach and board the yacht, Dances with Waves, which led to the seizure of €750m of cocaine.

The Navy ship was involved in another major drug bust in September 2014 when it took part in a surveillance operation of the yacht, Makayabella, which was later boarded some 200-miles off Mizen Head and found to have €80m worth of cocaine on board.

The vessel was also deployed on a humanitarian operation in the Mediterranean between July and September 2015, rescuing migrants trying to cross the sea.