Several people were evacuated off a boat out on a lake in Co Westmeath on Sunday afternoon, after the vessel caught fire.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (Rnli) Lough Ree station received a call about a ship in difficulty on the water at 2.30pm, as a fire had broken out on the vessel.
An Rnli crew had been carrying out exercises on the water at Lough Ree at the time when they were tasked to respond to the emergency call.
The crew arrived at the boat in Coosan Lough, off Lough Ree, near Athlone, around five minutes later, a spokeswoman for the Rnli said.
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‘I could have gone to California. At this rate, I probably would have raised about half a billion dollars’
The skipper and crew of the boat had already been evacuated onto another passing boat and taken to safety, she said. The Rnli vessel remained at the scene while the boat continued to burn, as a safety precaution.
Local Fianna Fáil councillor Aengus O’Rourke said he had been informed three adults and three children were rescued from the boat by a passing boat.
One volunteer in the Rnli Lough Ree station said they believed no one had been injured in the fire on the boat.
