A yacht caught fire last night on the River Dart in Devon. Brixham Coastguard was alerted to the blaze by Devon Fire and Rescue Service just after midnight, and called upon Torbay lifeboat and local vessels to help gain access to the yacht. Fortunately there was nobody onboard, and the fire, which was in the engineroom, was eventually brought under control. A police investigation is now underway.

Dave Scullion, Watch Manager at Brixham Coastguard, said: ‘A fire onboard any vessel is extremely hazardous to both those onboard and to the fire crew who are tasked to put it out. It was lucky that in this case there was no one onboard the vessel and the fire service was able to deal with the fire very quickly.’