A FIRE broke out in the generator room of a navy training ship in the early hours of this morning.
Firefighters were despatched from Southsea and Cosham fire station at 3.12am after the crew of HMS Bristol raised the alarm.
The Type 82 destroyer, which has been used as a training ship since 1991, is usually based at HMS Excellent on Whale Island, Portsmouth but is currently in the city’s naval dockyards.
Southsea watch manager Peter Scott said: ‘The crew discovered the fire in the generator room and tackled it with a foam extinguisher initially, but when it became clear that wasn’t enough, we were contacted.
‘It was a small fire in the generator exhaust intake.
‘We looked at the fire along with the navy and in the end the decision was made that it wasn’t going to go anywhere, so it was allowed to burn itself out.
‘It was quite a long process to make sure everything was safe – we had everything in place to either tackle it from below internally, or above with the aerial platform, if we needed to.’
Three pumps and the aerial ladder platform were sent from Southsea, plus one pump and the special equipment unit from Cosham – the standard response to a ship fire.
The fire service were stood down at around 6am.
It is believed the fire began when the generator was started up and there is no suggestion of foul play.
No-one was hurt during the incident.
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