Barrow-in-Furness shipyard "fully operational" after large-scale fire

Several people had been taken to hospital after the blaze broke out

Author: Rory GannonPublished 3 hours ago

The nuclear submarine shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness that was set ablaze earlier this week is now "fully operational".

BAE Systems shipyard was the scene of a large-scale fire that took hold on Wednesday (October 30th), with several people needing to be taken to hospital.

Since then, the victims of the incident have since been discharged from hospital and work is now ongoing to clean up the shipyard following the fire.

In a statement, a spokesperson for BAE Systems said: "Following the fire in the Devonshire Dock Hall (DDH) at our Barrow-in-Furness site on Wednesday October 30, a full investigation and clean-up activities are now under way.

"The affected area is accessible to essential personnel only but the remainder of the site is fully operational."

Following on from this, the spokesperson thanked the emergency services for their role in helping workers get to safety, as well as treating those who needed medical attention.

"We're also grateful to the local community for their patience and co-operation throughout," they added.

"The multi-agency response to the incident prevented significant damage to the DDH facility and the submarine units within it.

"We are continuing a full assessment of the impact and are developing a comprehensive plan to progress remedial action but early investigations indicate the fire has had limited impact.

"Work continues on Astute Boat 6, which is currently in the water in the Devonshire Dock, and both the Dreadnought and SSN-AUKUS programmes are progressing."

The shipyard had been building the Astute Boat 6, which was the sixth of seven submarines that were commissioned to be constructed.

The Astute Class boats are the largest and most advanced attack submarines that have been built for the Royal Navy.

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