BAE Systems has provided an update following the fire at its Barrow-in-Furness submarine manufacturing facility, which broke out early on Wednesday morning.
Emergency services were called to respond to the incident in the Devonshire Dock Hall, the site’s main submarine construction building. By afternoon, the blaze was largely controlled, and the fire response was scaled down.
A spokesperson for BAE Systems issued the following statement:
“Emergency services have stood down their major incident response to the fire which broke out in the early hours of Wednesday 30 October at our submarines facility in Barrow in Furness.
We’d like to thank all the agencies involved for their assistance in dealing with the fire at the Devonshire Dock Hall and the local community for their ongoing support and patience as the incident was managed throughout the day. All personnel were safely evacuated and our employees who were treated in hospital have been released.”
Whilst the affected area is accessible for essential personnel only, the remainder of the site is operational. Until a full investigation has been completed, it would be inappropriate to comment further about the cause or potential impact of the incident.”
The fire had prompted a major response, including the evacuation of all personnel from the affected building. Two individuals were taken to hospital as a precaution for smoke inhalation and were subsequently discharged. Cumbria Police assured the public that there was no nuclear risk associated with the incident, and an investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed it is working closely with BAE and local emergency responders as they assess the incident’s impact and establish next steps for resuming normal operations.
thanks for covering this and updating us since story was drowned by budget 2024
hopefully damage is limited and won’t cause too many delays.
i think a lot of people fail to realize the importance of this shipyard especially when there is a war in Europe with N. Korean troops, Iran causing all sorts of problems across the middle east via proxies as well as looking to develop nukes, and China becoming ever more assertive around the South China seas.
at the end of the day, regardless of monetary costs, deterrance is far cheaper than a bloody war.
Agreed. Defence spending at the height of WW2 was 52% of GDP..! Makes even 5% defence spending look like a good deal if we effectively deter aggression.
Cheers CR
Good news indeed.
HMG needs to get this sorted pronto. Need an increase in threat level and security across a wide range of sites civilian & military given potential sabotage scenario’s.
Needs trained people to do that.
Lots of them…
Uk always had diffuse defence manufacturing which depended on only the locals knowing – trouble is in digital world they all have a website and address so too easy to work out what and where.
If this does turn out to be sabotage the response should be the immediate removal of restrictions on the use of Storm Shadow.
Unfortunately, as far as I understand it, something in StormShadow is subject to ITAR, so it’s not up to us. The US still get their say, and I don’t see any change in their policy just because we had a little fire.
The attack on our hospital should have elicited that response.
Nothing new in this statement, Surely they can at least tell if there’s been any obvious damage to the sub”s under construction or not at this point.