Volunteer crew from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's Longhope station in Orkney were first on the scene, following reports the Cooke feed barge had caught on fire.
Photo: RNLI Longhope (Twitter).
A feed barge belonging to Cooke Aquaculture Scotland has suffered significant damage after a fire broke out on the vessel during the early morning of 8 January.
The barge, which serviced Cooke's West Fara salmon farm in Scapa Flow, Orkney, was unmanned at the time of the fire.
The incident was first called in at around 6.40am by a ferryboat, the MV Hoy Head, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) volunteer crew from Longhope station were first on the scene, posting dramatic images of the flames on their X (formerly Twitter) account.
Orkney council's tugboat Freyja of Scapa was able to extinguish the flames before 8.40am, according to local media reports by BBC Orkney and newspaper The Orcadian.
According to the BBC, Cooke are "working closely with the emergency services, and have launched an investigation into the cause of the fire", and a report will be sent to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
