A fire that broke out at a boat maintenance yard inside the Galle Fisheries Harbour on Sunday afternoon was extinguished by the Sri Lanka Navy working with Air Force firefighters, the Galle municipal fire unit and local fishermen.
The blaze was detected aboard a boat within the harbour premises by SLNS Dakshina, the Southern Naval Command’s shore establishment, which immediately deployed a firefighting team to the scene, the Daily Mirror reported.
Navy personnel worked alongside a Sri Lanka Air Force firefighting unit, the Galle Municipal Council fire unit and fishermen from the harbour to bring the fire under control and stop it spreading to nearby boats and harbour infrastructure.
Hiru News reported the same account in Sinhala, placing the fire inside the boat maintenance yard at the harbour on the afternoon of the 8th and crediting SLNS Dakshina with the rapid response.
How much was damaged
NewsFirst reported that around four boats were damaged, citing police, and described the fire as breaking out in the evening.
That figure sits alongside, rather than against, the Navy account: the Daily Mirror and Hiru describe the fire being stopped before it spread further through the yard, not before it caused any damage at all.
A second Hiru filing, published at 4.49pm on Sunday, settles that reading directly. Citing its own correspondent, it reports the fire was completely brought under control, that it began inside a boat parked in the maintenance yard, and that it did spread to several other boats before being contained. No source gives a value for the loss.
Not reported
None of the three filings reports a cause for the fire, and no investigation finding has been published. No injuries or deaths are reported by any outlet. The boats involved are not identified, their owners are not named, and no estimate of damage has been given. The time at which the fire started is not stated — the Daily Mirror and Hiru place it in the afternoon and NewsFirst in the evening, and none gives a clock time.
Context
The Galle Fisheries Harbour is the main multi-day fishing base on the southern coast and the home port for a large share of Sri Lanka’s offshore fleet. Boats are hauled out at the maintenance yard for hull repair and repainting, work that involves fuel, resins and solvents.
The Navy’s Southern Naval Command has been repeatedly involved in civilian emergencies off this coast in recent weeks, including a medical evacuation from a cargo ship off Galle and the evacuation of an Iranian tanker crew.
