Ferry blaze was second on same vessel

An investigation was underway today after a ferry packed with day-trippers and holidaymakers suffered its second fire in the space of three weeks.

Passengers aboard the P&O ferry Norsea expressed their relief as they docked safely in Zeebrugge, Belgium, following their 21-hour voyage.

The ship, which was carrying 611 passengers, alerted coastguards to the blaze just over seven hours after it began its journey from Hull at 7pm on Sunday.

It was extinguished by the ferry’s own automatic fire system at about 6.30am, just over four hours after it broke out.

Passengers were taken to the upper deck but no-one was evacuated.

The latest emergency comes two and a half weeks after fire broke out in the vessel’s funnel. Two crew members were injured in that incident.

A P&O spokesman said the ship has two engine rooms and the latest fire was in a different room to last month’s blaze.

Young mother Sandra Liddle from Beverley, near Hull, England was travelling with her grandmother Peggy, 80, three-month-old daughter Lucy and partner Dave Verheyen who was visiting his mother in Antwerp.

She said: “I was scared for Lucy more than anything else. I was worried about wearing the life-jacket and keeping hold of Lucy at the same time, and obviously what might have happened afterwards.”

Ms Liddle, 23, who used to work on ships as an entertainer, added: “I just felt like we were never going to get here. I was close to tears a lot of the time.”

Ken Walls, 83, from Dalry, Scotland, said: “We’ve been through a lot worse things than this during the war. I thought this was an exercise. I was just wondering when they were going to serve breakfast, that’s all.

Mr Walls is on a coach trip due to return next Sunday. It is the first holiday he has been on since his wife died two years ago.

Retired merchant seaman Thomas Rigg, 65, from Hull, was unconcerned about the incident and full of praise for the crew – and the ferry’s captain Gerry Walker, 55, from Yorkshire.

He said: “This was sailing in the park. Fires on a ship these days can be isolated so fast, so it is nothing to panic about.

“It was just one of those things, we all stayed calm. You were half asleep so it didn’t register for a while, so we just got dressed and went to where we were supposed to be.

“The crew was good and the captain was excellent. I think everybody behaved impeccably. We behave in a stoical manner, don’t we? Everybody did rather well and helped everybody. There were one or two little ’uns who just didn’t understand it.”

But mother-of-three Christine Clappison, 45, from Hull, who was on a day trip with her 16-year-old daughter Kayleigh, said people were “distressed”.

Mrs Clappison said: “It was blind panic when they handed out the life jackets. People were running around clearly distressed trying to find their loved ones.”

P&O spokesman Cor Radings said most of the 611 passengers were asleep when the fire broke out.

The passengers, mainly British, were offered a full refund.

The 106 day-trippers were offered a return trip via Dover yesterday or the option of staying the night in nearby Bruges and returning today.

The Norsea will be out of service for at least one round trip and is not likely to resume service until tomorrow, Mr Radings said.

After the blaze, the ferry was left drifting about eight miles north east of Great Yarmouth until its engines were restarted and it limped slowly into port.

Last month’s fire began just 15 minutes after the ferry set sail from Hull. Two crew members suffered “minor injuries” and were discharged after treatment.

That blaze was extinguished by the ship’s crew 30 minutes after being discovered, and the ship was again able to continue the voyage to Zeebrugge.

The 31,000-tonne ferry, which was launched by the Queen Mother in 1986, 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 life-rafts.