French fishing boat catches fire and sinks in North Sea

A fire broke out on a French fishing vessel in the North Sea off Boulogne-sur-Mer on the night of Monday, April 22.

The Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea received an alert at around 22:30 local time from the Regional Operational Monitoring and Rescue Centre in Gris-Nez that a fishing boat, identified as Saint Jean Pierre, was ablaze 26 nautical miles from the coast.

Löic II, another fishing vessel in the same area, came to the aid of Saint Jean Pierre after its crew fired off two red flares to signal for help from passing ships.

All three crewmembers of the burning vessel were safely brought aboard Löic II as the fire continued to rage.

As Saint Jean Pierre’s crew were being evacuated, the customs patrol boat Jacques Oudart Fourmentin and the tug Abeille Languedoc arrived in the area and attempted to extinguish the blaze.

However, the firefighting crews were unsuccessful, and Saint Jean Pierre sank at approximately 01:00 on April 23.