LE RIF in her original condition as GALLOWAY PRINCESS

Former Irish Sea ferry evacuated following blaze
Fire aboard LE RIF, formerly GALLOWAY PRINCESS...

The Moroccan ferry LE RIF, owned by IMTC, was evacuated in the early hours of this morning following a fire in her hold last night, various sources of the Spanish media are reporting.

The reports say that crew and 14 passengers, mostly lorry drivers, were taken off the ferry at the port of Algeciras and there were no injuries.

The ferry was originally Sealink's GALLOWAY PRINCESS, built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast in 1980 and became the STENA GALLOWAY in 1991 with Stena Line. She was sold to IMTC in 2002 and took up the daily schedule on the Algeciras-Tanger route.

The level of damage and cause of the fire is unknown. Equasis reports the vessel as having 10 deficiencies when inspected at Algeciras on the 27th April. Amongst these was a failure in Fire Safety measures.

Some media reports say those on board had to be evacuated with the aid of ladders as the stern doors could not be used due to the location of the fire, which was extinguished by firefighters and the tug SIROCO.