Child and two adults suffer severe burns after explosion on boat in Cambridgeshire

Emergency services at the incident this morning. Credit: @PaulSeparovicEA

The family were on board a river cruiser which went up in flames this morning, Tuesday, on the River Great Ouse in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Emergency services were called to the scene at around 8.45am but the full extent of their injuries is not yet known.

Fire crews said the blaze, which took nearly an hour and a half to extinguish, was started by an exploding gas cylinder.

The woman, man and child were taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge while fire officers worked to put out the flames.

Paul Separovic of the Environment Agency's waterways team tweeted to say: "Ongoing incident on the #RiverGreatOuse #ElyOuse on the #ElyWaterfront at present.

"There has been an explosion & resulting fire on board a river cruiser.

"All Emergency Services and air ambulance are on scene & we are liaising with them, area is sealed off, pls avoid at present."

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We got a call at 8.45am to reports of a female, male and child being burned in Willow Walk, Ely, on the River Ouse.

"They’re all alive. They have burnt their hands and faces. We are not sure about the extent of the injuries.

"We dispatched an ambulance crew, officer, rapid response vehicles, and a hazard area response team - as well as our East Anglian Air Ambulance to the scene.

“The patients are now on their way to Addenbrooke’s Hospital for further treatment.”

A Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue spokesman said: “At 8:49am on Tuesday (April 24) one crew from Ely, three crews from Cambridge and one crew from Newmarket in Suffolk were called to an incident near Willow Walk in Ely.

“Firefighters arrived to find a gas cylinder had exploded on a boat.

“Three casualties required treatment for burns and were taken to hospital by ambulance.

“The crews ensure the area was safe and returned to their stations by 10.30am.

The River Great Ouse is 143 miles long and one of the longest rivers in the United Kingdom.

It flows into East Anglia before entering the Wash, a bay of the North Sea and has been historically important for commercial navigation, and for draining the low-lying region.