The Trevessa, a 26-metre beam trawler registered to Newlyn, became a potential floating death trap after flames broke out in the engine room.
The vessel, skippered by Robert McCreath, widely known as Fish, was 35 miles south of the Isles of Scilly when the crew sent up the mayday alert at 4.40pm on Thursday.
The crew managed to seal off the engine room, but had been forced to leave the wheelhouse because of the amount of smoke, and had deployed their liferaft.
Falmouth Coastguard scrambled the rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose and the St Mary's lifeboat, from the Isles of Scilly.
They also put out a broadcast to shipping in the area and two vessels, the James RH Stevenson and the Billy Rooney responded.
The crew of the James RH Stevenson tried to haul their gear quickly to respond, but ended up damaging equipment, and were delayed. The Billy Rooney stood by the burning boat, to ensure other shipping activity steered clear.
The helicopter crew managed to winch all four crew members to safety, and they were taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, Truro, for smoke inhalation treatment.
Yesterday, crew members were heading back out to the scene on the Penlee lifeboat to assess the damage, along with an engineer from Newlyn-based fishing company, Stevensons.
They managed to restart the vessel which was last night heading back to Newlyn under her own steam.
article copyright WESTERN MORNING NEWS