Riverside buildings evacuated as yacht blaze hits York centre

More than 30 firefighters were called to tackle the fire on the River Ouse in York city centre on Saturday night.

The incident, near King’s Staith, was reported at around 7.30pm and lasted for several hours.

It was initially thought there may have been somebody on board but it had been empty.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searched the boat but there were no casualties during the incident.

Burning marine fuel created huge volumes of smoke.

A North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “Due to the large quantities of smoke, a number of neighbouring properties were evacuated as a precautionary measure.”

More than 400 litres of foam was used to bring the blaze under control. Firefighters left the scene at 11.30pm on Saturday night. The cause of the fire, which has destroyed the 15m motorcruiser, is still being investigated. It is believed it started in the crew compartment and then spread to the rest of the boat.

Michael Neal was among those who witnessed the blaze, as his own boat was moored 20 metres away from the yacht which caught fire. He said: “It looked like the fire service were fighting a losing battle to start with when they were using jets of water because the temperature of the boat was just causing it to reignite.

“When they started using foam it looked like they started to have some success.”

Mr Neal captured photographs of the blaze from the river.

He said he moved his own boat as he was concerned that the yacht could have become free of its moorings during the fire.

Mr Neal said he believed the boat’s owners actually lived onboard the yacht.