ABERDEEN COASTGUARD ALERTED TO FIRE ON STAND BY VESSEL

Earlier this evening Aberdeen Coastguard were co-ordinating assistance to the offshore supply vessel the 628 GT ’Vos Vedette after her crew reported a fire in the engine room at around this evening.

She was about 60 nautical miles offshore at the time and had reported the fire to Aberdeen Coastguard on 2182 kHz. The crew of 12 reported that the vessel had been disabled and that a CO2 agent had been released into the engine space to douse the fire. The crew were conducting boundary cooling at the time. There were no reported injuries.

The weather at the time were westerly winds of around 20 knots with a 5 metre swell and the crew also reported that they were in the middle of heavy snow showers which was limiting their communications abilities.

Aberdeen Coastguard immediately relayed a mayday relay broadcast  and an MF DSC alert into the area to request further assistance and various other vessels responded including the ‘Vos Ocean’ who began proceeding towards the ‘Vos Vedette’ with an estimated time of arrival on scene at 11.15 pm this evening.. The Air Rescue Co-Ordination Centre at Kinloss was also informed in case any crew needed to be airlifted from the vessel.
By the skipper confirmed to Aberdeen Coastguard that the fire had been extinguished, and by the engineer had confirmed he had managed to restart one of the engines.

Robbie Robertson, Duty Watch Manager at Aberdeen Coastguard said

“Due to the prevailing weather conditions we are keeping a close eye on the vessel as she begins to make way in heavy weather. Fortunately the ‘Vos Ocean’ will be on scene shortly.”

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