Scroby Sands wind turbine fire off Norfolk coast self extinguishes

A fire on an offshore wind turbine has self extinguished, its owner has said.

A plume of black smoke was seen billowing from the Scroby Sands wind farm, 1.5 miles (2.5km) off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

HM Coastguard said the alarm was raised at 10:50 BST on Tuesday and that all personnel had been accounted for following an evacuation.

RWE, the German company that owns the wind farm, said no-one was on board the turbine when the fire broke out.

The company hoped to have the wind farm back operational on Wednesday.

The fire was first reported to HM Coastguard at about 10:50 BST

A spokesperson for RWE said: "An incident occurred which led to a fire in the turbine nacelle - the enclosure at the top of the tower which houses the generating components.

"Emergency services were contacted immediately and the Coastguard made aware. They are monitoring the area and advising on a potential 500 metre restriction zone being enforced around the affected turbine.

"We would ask people to keep away from the area as assessments are ongoing."

The Scroby Sands wind farm was commissioned in 2004

Scroby Sands was one of the UK's first commercial offshore wind farms

RWE said its 30 turbines had an installed capacity of 60 megawatts and was able to power more than 48,000 households.