Emergency services were tasked early this morning as a
fishing vessel got into difficulties nine miles south west of
Castletownbere, Co
Cork
.
At
3.15 am
Valentia Coastguard Radio was alerted that a fishing vessel had a fire
on board and requested immediate assistance. The boat, with four crew on
board, had been fishing when the emergency occurred. The Coastguard
immediately tasked Castletownbere Lifeboat and put the
Shannon
based Sikorsky Coastguard Rescue helicopter on standby.
Castletownbere’s RNLI Severn class lifeboat “Annette
Hutton” was launched immediately under Coxswain Brian O’Driscoll
with crew Brendan Gonnelly, Marney O’Donovan, Paul Stevens, Lorraine
Murphy, Martin O’Sullivan, Dan Murphy, Joe Tim O’Sullivan, and
Martin Cronin. The ‘Naomh Oilibhear’ was located shortly afterwards
in moderate sea conditions with force 3/4southerly winds. At this stage the fire had been contained and
the fishing vessel requested to be escorted back to Castletownbere.
During the trip back to port the fire appeared to abate and both the
lifeboat and fishing vessel were back to Castletownbere by
5.10 a.m.
The local fire brigade were waiting on the pier to provide assistance to
the vessel.
Castletownbere lifeboat was ready for service again by
5.45 a.m.
