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Boat: All Weather Lifeboat
Crew: Alan Barnes (Coxswain), Tim Julian, John Murray, Chris Price, Peter Wood, Snowy Angove, Nick Lewis, Phil Rogers, Mark Pollard, David Muirhead.
Location: Queens Wharf, Falmouth Docks
Shout Date: 08/01/2003 (All day)
Weather:SE 6-7, Moderate Sea, Poor Visibility, Snow Showers

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At 02:45 Falmouth Coastguard requested that Falmouth Offshore Lifeboat be launched to assist the fire brigade and docks authorities with a major fire on the Queens Wharf in Falmouth Docks.

The Offshore Lifeboat left her berth at 03:09 and arrived on scene shortly afterwards to find the whole 200m length of the wooden wharf was well alight. The Offshore Lifeboat was tasked to standby while fire fighters attempted to tackle the blaze from both the shore and harbour tugs. The Lifeboat evacuated the six man Russian crew from the Survey Boat Tornado, which had originally been tied up alongside the wharf, as they were believed to be suffering from the effects of the smoke inhalation. Once they had been checked over by the Lifeboat Doctor at the lifeboat station they were returned to their ship so it could be moved to a safer location.

The Lifeboat then continued to act as a safety boat while over sixty fire fighters attempted to bring the fire under control, a task which was greatly hampered by the risk of the 150ft Docks Crane collapsing. Just after 05:30 the crane finally toppled into harbour, reducing the risk to the emergency services and so allowing the fire fighting teams to get much closer to the wharf. The work continued all morning with the Lifeboat also being used to provide a platform from which the Senior Fire Officers were able to identify the hot spots and so call in the fire teams on the harbour tugs. Eventually at 11:00 the Lifeboat was released to return to station.

The Offshore Lifeboat was back alongside its pontoon berth by 11:07, where it was refuelled and ready for service by 11:30.