Firefighters in Essex today tackled a boat fire in Brightlingsea.

One crew from Brightlingsea and another from Clacton attended the incident after recieving reports of an explosion on board the boat at 11.58am.

The boat was docked on hard standing within Shipyard Estates and arriving at the scene firefighters reported that the blaze was in the engine room, which was heavily smoke logged.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went on board and discovered the boat’s automatic fire supression system had activated, dousing flames.

Crews ventilated the engine room and inspected the boat to make sure it was safe before leaving the scene at 12.46pm.