TWO PEOPLE ARE being treated in hospital following a fire on board a boat in Killaloe yesterday evening.

Emergency services were alerted at around 8.20pm and requested to respond to reports of a fire on board a vessel moored in Killaloe. It was also reported that there were persons on board the boat at the time.

Units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Killaloe and Scarriff stations responded to the scene along with Gardaí, National Ambulance Service paramedics and members of the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard.

It’s believed that fire may have started with a gas cooker but had been extinguished by the time emergency services arrived. Fire crews checked to ensure the fire was completely out and that there was no risk of it reigniting.

Ambulance paramedics assessed a man and a woman at the scene before both were removed by ambulances to University Hospital Limerick.

The pair are being treated for what have been described as “minor burns”.

The incident was the third that the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard responded to on Sunday.

The first call involved a 19ft boat that was reported to have run aground on the River Shannon close to Parteen Weir south of Killaloe.

The alarm was raised at around 4.00pm and watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination centre on Valentia Island in Kerry requested the volunteer team at Killaloe to launch their boat and respond.

The vessel with two persons on board had run aground close to the Clare shore 1km north of Parteen Weir.

After arriving at the scene and locating the vessel, rescuers carried out an assessment of the situation and decided to remove the two persons and take them on board the Coast Guard boat.

The boat crew then removed the casualty vessel from the sand bank and once it was safely back in deeper water, the owners were transferred back on board and were able to continue their journey.

While returning to their station at Pier Head Killaloe after that shout, the team was tasked for a second time.

At around 5.00pm, watch officers in Valentia requested the team to respond to reports of a vessel in possible difficulty on Lough Derg north of Killaloe near Two Mile Gate.

The boat crew reached the scene within 5 minutes and started a search from Ballyvally to north of Two Mile Gate on the Clare shore.

The crew made contact with a vessel with two persons on board. The boat had been stationery for almost an hour and it’s believed the concerned member of the public who raised the alarm believed they were in difficulty.

It was established that the pair were not in difficulty and did not require assistance. The incident is being treated as a ‘false alarm with good intent’ and the Coast Guard volunteers were stood down.