Three boats affected by fire

THERE were three boats affected by the fire at Sutton Stop yesterday, Thursday, writes Keith Gudgin.

One plastic cruiser was burnt out completely and sunk, as shown in the photograph, with two narrowboats affected by fire and smoke to some degree. Neither of the narrowboats have sunk, but suffered damage as shown in the photographs below.

Had to move boats

I am at the moment at Sutton stop and I, and other boaters, had to move our boats away at 0200 in the morning to get away from the well alight cruiser that was drifting in the canal. We didn't get back to bed until about 04.30.

The fire service did a great job in very difficult circumstances and it's a big 'well done' to them.

CaRT staff attended later in the morning and cleared away the debris that had drifted into the lock and marked the position of the sunken wreck which has actually sunk in the middle of the seven day visitor moorings on the southern approach to the stop-lock. I advise boaters to be careful when approaching the area as the wreck is actually just under the surface and could be difficult to see from any distance. The photo was taken before the wreck was marked.

[All the photographs are by Keith, and are greatly appreciated.]