A fire broke out in the engine room of passenger/vehicle RoRo Isle of Inishfree on Friday March 3rd while it was travelling from Dover to Calais.

Three lifeboats and a French salvage tug were launched after the fire broke.

In a statement, the company said: “Irish Ferries can confirm that Friday evening 3 March, the crew on board its ship the Isle of Innisfree successfully extinguished a small fire in the ship’s engine room while sailing from Dover to Calais”.  

89 crew members and 94 passengers were on board the ship.

Passengers booked on Isle of Innisfree sailings were being transferred to alternative sailings, operator Irish Ferries said, noting also that “crews train regularly to deal with incidents at sea, and the company has put its training into action and the fire has been extinguished.”

The vessel has confirmed that the fire has been extinguished but it is experiencing technical issues. All passengers and crew are accounted for and no injuries.