33 rescued - Drifting barge heads for Barrow

by Paul Conneally | January 30, 2009 at 12:24 pm

507 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

A large barge is drifting towards shore at Barrow in the North West of England after being blown off its moorings by high winds and seas.

33 workers had to be rescued from the barge UR 101 which ironically was carrying workers working on the huge Robin Rigg wind farm which is placed where it is because of the very high winds which led to this accident.

A BARGE drifting in high seas from which 33 workers were rescued was being towed to Barrow tonight.

The barge had six remaining wind farm workers on board, after rescuers took the rest to safety.
The 42 workers were aboard the UR 101 barge at the Robin Rigg wind farm, eight miles west of Maryport, today when three of their four anchor cables snapped.

The Marine and Coastguard Agency said 33 workers were evacuated by tug boats and support vessels.
Nine remaining workers requested assistance from the Liverpool Coastguard at 8.20am as the wind reached 48 knots and the seas a 16ft swell.

Three people were taken ashore by the Workington lifeboat, but six people stayed on the barge to secure the anchor cables.

A spokesman for RAF Kinloss confirmed a helicopter had been scrambled to evacuate workers from the drifting 4,000 tonne, 90-metre long barge, but said it was not required to carry out a rescue.