Wick harbour emergency after report of fire on vessel
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Emergency services were called to Wick harbour this afternoon after a report of a fire on a vessel in Wick Bay.
Wick lifeboat escorted the vessel, GXS Viking, into the outer harbour shortly before 4pm and the two boats were still alongside as darkness fell.
No injuries were reported.
An earlier version of this report wrongly identified the vessel as being part of the Beatrice offshore wind farm fleet. In fact it was not chartered to Beatrice and was passing by Wick en route to its home port in the Western Isles.
A helicopter from HM Coastguard remained present throughout the incident.
Three fire engines raced to the harbour area where firefighters liaised with the lifeboat and coastguard teams.
A spokesperson for HM Coastguard said: "HM Coastguard has been responding to a vessel fire in the Wick harbour area this afternoon. Alerted at around 3.30pm, Wick coastguard rescue team, a lifeboat from Wick RNLI and the coastguard helicopter from Inverness were sent to the scene, alongside Scottish Fire and Rescue Service."
A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were alerted at 3.32pm on Wednesday to reports of a fire on a ship.
“Operations control mobilised three appliances to the scene where crews are assisting the vessel.
“The fire was extinguished by the vessel’s suppression system.
“No injuries have been reported and crews remain on scene.”
GXS Viking appears to be owned by Gulfxstream Ltd, a commercial and private boat charter business working in marine and subsea consultancy services.
The vessel is understood to have been working in the offshore wind sector.
