THE skipper of a north-east trawler which burst into flames at a port, killing three crewmen, returned home at the weekend to help the investigation into the tragedy.

The Press and Journal 05/08/2008

Alexander Jack cut short a holiday on Friday when he was told of the blaze on his boat, the Vision II, which was berthed at Fraserburgh.

The experienced trawlerman, of Gardenstown, will be questioned as part of the joint police and fire service probe.

He will also be interviewed by the Department of Transport’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which starts its inquiry this morning.

His wife, Monica, said he was too busy to speak to the press yesterday.

“We’re just back home and we’re trying to get everything sorted out,” she said.

“There are a lot of people who want to speak to him over the next few days.”

Police are treating the fire as unexplained, but said there did not appear to be any suspicious circumstances.

About 40 firefighters tackled the blaze in the early hours of Friday.

They said being inside the boat was like being inside a large oven, with searing heat and thick smoke. Temperatures below decks are thought to have reached as high as 600F.

Two of the dead crew are thought to be from the Philippines. One has been named locally as father-of-five Ramhel Calepyan, who was due to return home to his wife and family next month.

The third man is thought to be Sigitas Palmieras, from Lithuania, who friends said had been a fisherman in the north-east for three years. None of the crewmen has yet been formally identified by police.

The tragedy has raised questions about the conditions foreign fishermen in the north-east are living in. About 100 Filipinos have arrived over the last year to work in the industry. Last night, the International Transport Workers’ Federation called on First Minister Alex Salmond to take action to avoid a repeat of Friday’s deaths.

Co-ordinator Norrie McVicar said the union had been contacted by Filipino fishermen about working conditions in Fraserburgh. But a “fear of reprisals” had prevented the workers from making a formal complaint.

“After what happened, part of me wishes that they had and that we had intervened earlier,” Mr McVicar said in a letter to Mr Salmond. He called on the first minister, who is also the local MP, to asked the Health and Safety Executive and maritime agencies to “carry out a full and wide-ranging inquiry, not only into the deaths of these fishermen, but into the living and safety conditions on all commercial vessels in Scotland”.

But Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said he did not recognise the industry that Mr McVicar described in his letter. “The working conditions for a Filipino, a Latvian or a Scotsman are precisely the same. They work in the same boat with the same skipper.”

One fishermen told the P&J: “It’s very common for the foreign fishermen to sleep on their boats. It’s not like it was in the old days. Now they've got access to a shower, proper beds and a galley.

“One Filipino told me the conditions on his boat were far better to the conditions he had been living in back home. He had never seen a micro-wave before.”

The three crewmen were said to have returned to the boat at around 12.30am on Friday, just an hour before the fire broke out.

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