Nine people including two children were rescued by a lifeboat crew from a large boat on fire near Dukes Meadows in Chiswick .
The team from Chiswick RNLI were on an exercise at Putney when they heard the report come through on the radio and launched at high speed to attend to the incident.
The 50-tonne vessel, Seahorse, was anchored and had smoke billowing out of the engine room when the rescue crew arrived on Sunday (July 24) afternoon.
Seven adults and two small children were on the large converted barge and the RNLI crew evacuated six people who were led to safety to Chiswick Pier, but the skipper of the Seahorse and two others refused to leave.
As a result RNLI crewman Peter Knight stayed onboard at the front of the vessel, away from the fire, and liaised with the London Fire Brigade (LFB) who were on their way.
Six firefighters were ferried to the Seahorse and started to put out the flames bringing the fire under control in under 90 minutes.
The source of the fire was from combustible items that had been stored in the engine room, according to the LFB.
They removed the materials from the engine room and then began damping down.
Luckily there were no injuries reported and the engine was undamaged.
The Seahorse returned to its mooring by Kew Bridge under its own power and was accompanied by the Fire Dart as a precautionary measure.
RNLI Helmsman Ian Owen said: “We were able to swiftly evacuate the most vulnerable passengers from the vessel and through the joint efforts of the lifeboat crew and the London Fire Brigade a potentially hazardous situation was efficiently dealt with and all persons were unharmed.”
Three fire crews from Hammersmith, Chiswick and Richmond fire stations attended the scene.
LFB said they were called at 4.52pm and the fire was under control by 6.10pm.
On Monday (July 25) night firefighters were called to a house fire on Ealing Road in Brentford where two women and a dog escaped unharmed.
