On Thursday, a fireplace broke out aboard a vessel underneath restore on the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, prompting an evacuation. 

According to the shipbuilder, the fireplace broke out in a tank house and shoreside firefighters had been known as in. All personnel had been safely evacuated, and no accidents had been reported. The explanation for the fireplace has already been decided as “accidental,” however an investigation remains to be ongoing, Harland and Wolff stated in an announcement. 

“Harland and Wolff takes safety of all personnel as the most important priority,” the shipbuilder added. 

Harland & Wolff was as soon as the builder of a number of the world’s most iconic vessels, together with the ill-fated Titanic. Like so many Western shipbuilders, it got here underneath heavy aggressive stress from Asia within the Nineties and 2000s, and its enterprise declined, but it surely has been on a turnaround trajectory because it was acquired out of chapter in 2019. It has picked up new authorities enterprise, like a $66 million venture to revive the previous Royal Navy mine-hunting vessel HMS Quorn for export to Romania. It lately partnered with Spanish shipbuilder Navantia on a profitable bid to provide three dry shops auxiliaries to the Royal Navy, a contract price a staggering $2 billion. 

It additionally has an increasing portfolio of small industrial initiatives, like a contract to construct a fleet of rubbish barges for waste-management agency Cory Group – its first newbuilds in 20 years. The ship-repair aspect of its enterprise can also be thriving with contracts for ferry, cruise, protection and offshore operators.