FIRE CREWS from Southampton dashed to the docks when crew members on board a blaze-hit vessel did not respond to calls.

The car carrier, Courage has been docked in the city after catching fire at sea with 24 crew members inside.

No one was injured during the blaze and investigators are still wiaitng to get on board to assess the damage.

It has been a major operation for firefighters who had to wait 24 hours for poisonous gases to be vented out and they had given the crew a mobile phone to talk to them regularly.

But when they weren’t able to reach them on the mobile crews from Hightown, St Mary’s and Redbridge were called and expected the worst.

A spokesman from Hightown said: “Everyone was panicking about it because they just weren’t responding and even after venting the vessel of carbon dioxide over the weekend we were still worried.”

But when more than 12 firefighters and officers arrived at the scene shortly after 9.45pm, they discovered the mobile phone had just been charging in the other room.

The spokesman added: “Luckily they were all fine and had just been busy in another room and didn’t hear the phone but we don’t mind, it could have been much worse.”