Volunteers from Kinghorn’s RNLI lifeboat were called into action early on Saturday morning after a pilot boat suffered an engine room fire.
The Fife station received a Mayday alert at 3.36am when the Forth Leopard, positioned one-and-a-half miles south-east of Kinghorn, made a distress call to the coastguard.
The boat had just taken a pilot to a container ship and was returning to Granton when fire broke out. Fortunately, the automatic fire extinguisher system on the pilot boat activated while the two crew waited for the lifeboat.
Lifeboat helmsman Neil Chalmers said the crew arrived at the boat’s position within four minutes of launching.
”The pilot boat was drifting near the main shipping channel, without power,” he said. ”The fire was still burning when we arrived although the engine room was sealed and the carbon dioxide fire control system had been activated. There was a lot of smoke coming from vents.”
The lifeboat was then placed on standby until the specialist fire fighting tug, Fidra, arrived to tow the vessel back to Leith Docks.
”We assisted by transferring the casualties from the Forth Leopard on to the tug,” Mr Chalmers said. ”We then escorted both vessels back to Leith where the disabled pilot boat was secured so the fire service could board the vessel.
”The fire service were waiting at Leith for the arrival of the tug and pilot boat, where they then investigated and made sure the blaze was extinguished.”
Mr Chalmers added that the two crew of the pilot boat were uninjured, although they were taken to hospital for a check-up after feeling the effects of smoke inhalation.
The lifeboat crew, who also included Mark Brown, Iain Tulloch and Daniel Paton, were able to return to the station soon afterwards.