A SMOULDERING piece of equipment sparked a massive emergency response at Rosyth Dockyard this afternoon Around 40 firefighters in six engines attended the small fire which started in an extractor fan on the under-construction Queen Elizabeth carrier.

No-one was injured during the incident which occurred on deck 8 of the carrier which is in dry dock number one.

Speaking to Press Online, Dunfermline fire station manager Dave Wishart said, "Very quickly all persons were evacuated from the block.

"We committed personal to search the block and locate the fire and it was extinguished by the teams that discovered it.

"We've worked very closely with Babcock, the MOD and emergency response teams at the yard so have a very well rehearsed procedure we follow for exactly this type of incident.

"It shows the preparatory work we've done has been successful."

A spokesperson for Babcock said, "We can confirm that at 2.34pm, a small piece of equipment was smouldering in an area onboard the Queen Elizabeth Carrier Mid Section, LB03.

"We can confirm that as a standard precaution employees and contractors in the immediate vicinity were evacuated, no-one was injured during this incident and employees are now back working normally.

"This has had no consequences to operations here at Rosyth."

Ambulance crews and police also attended the incident as a precaution.