According to the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea (Premar Manche), on Monday, April 22, the fishing vessel ‘Saint Jean Pierre’ caught fire in the English Channel traffic separation scheme about 26 nm off Boulogne-sur-Mer. Although the crew were rescued, the vessel sank within hours.
Mainly, the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea received an alert at around 2230 local time from the Regional Operational Monitoring and Rescue Centre in Gris-Nez that a fishing boat was ablaze 26 nautical miles from the coast.
When the crew noticed the fire, they abandoned the the vessel into a raft, while they also fired two red signals.
The flares were noticed by the fishing vessel Loïc II, which was nearby, that moved towards them and rescued the crew.
As local media report, the skipper of the Loïc II is the father of the skipper of the Saint Jean Pierre.
Maritime rescue coordination centre CROSS Gris-Nez engaged the customs patrol vessel Jacques Oudart Fourmentin and the response tug Abeille Languedoc to attempt to extinguish the fire aboard the Pierre. A French Navy helicopter provided aerial surveillance.
As the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea commented, despite the firefighting effort, the Pierre sank in the English zone of the Channel at about 0100 hours Tuesday morning.
