‘Significant’ fire damage to Emerald Belle in Dutch shipyard

‘Despite the efforts of firefighters who were quickly at the scene, the damage is significant,’ Scenic chairman Glen Moroney said.

‘We are grateful and relieved that nobody was on board at the time and most importantly there were no injuries to any shipyard worker or firefighters to our knowledge,’ Moroney said.

The firefighting system on the vessel was not yet operational.

A full investigation by the shipyard and firefighting authorities is being carried out to determine the cause of the fire.

Moroney said operations and reservations teams are reviewing bookings to see how best to accommodate passengers on similar departures on other Emerald or Scenic ships.

He said agents with bookings will be notified by the teams to discuss options very shortly.

Emerald Waterways, a division of Evergreen Tours, a wholly owned  subsidiary of Australia’s mega river ship company Scenic Tours, was launched in 2013 and made its debut in 2014 with sister ships Emerald Star and Emerald Sky.

Emerald Dawn and Emerald Sun were launched last year.