Friefighters called when boat started taking on water on canal in Wigan

They received a call at 3pm on Saturday requesting help on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal near Crooke Hall Inn, in Crooke Village.

The owners of the narrowboat thought it was on fire when water got into the hot engine.

The crew helped to pump water out of the engine compartments using their specialist equipment.

Andy Leyland, watch manager at Wigan fire station, said: "There was very little damage luckily. The owner managed to get to the side and called us straight away before it got to the habitable part of the boat, so we pumped out the water from the engine."