Strange incident aboard the Regal last week

[chengkp75]

Why on gods (green :eek: brown blue red yellow) earth would there not be deck staff stationed nearby to watch for stray embers? It was suspected to be one cigarette butt that took out over 100 cabins on the Star Princess.

 

 

.

 

Because in 99.9% of the time, the stacks are high enough, and the wind in the right direction to blow the sparks away. Also, are you going to station crew on folks' balconies in the wee hours? "Excuse me, housekeeping, sorry to wake you but we need to stand on your balcony for a couple of hours"

 

Secondly, as you say, and I emphasize, it was suspected as being a cigarette, not proved. Also, balcony design has come a long way since the Star Princess.

 

And these embers or sparks are totally different from a cigarette butt, which has its own source of readily combustible fuel that is already burning, rather than simply a small dying heat source looking for fuel.

 

And as someone who has had both wood burning stoves and fireplaces for decades, I know it is not the sparks coming from the chimney that are the concern, nor the cause of house fires. Those sparks are a symptom of a fire burning inside the chimney, and this fire, which has a fuel of built up fuel is what will eventually cause a fire, not some sparks flying from the chimney.

 

And finally, as others here have noted, these sparks can and do happen 24/7. Anytime the engine changes load, which causes a change in exhaust temperature or exhaust gas velocity, accumulated soot on the inside of the exhaust pipe can get knocked loose and fly out the stack. And this again shows the nature of these sparks: While attached to the metal of the exhaust pipe, they are not getting hot enough to burn, but when the very thin flake of carbon breaks free, the heat of the exhaust heats the carbon to glowing. Once that heat is removed (outside the stack), the carbon's surface area quickly cools it below the glowing stage.

Edited December 15, 2015 by chengkp75

[MTJSR]

Because in 99.9% of the time, the stacks are high enough, and the wind in the right direction to blow the sparks away. Also, are you going to station crew on folks' balconies in the wee hours? "Excuse me, housekeeping, sorry to wake you but we need to stand on your balcony for a couple of hours"

 

Secondly, as you say, and I emphasize, it was suspected as being a cigarette, not proved. Also, balcony design has come a long way since the Star Princess.

 

And these embers or sparks are totally different from a cigarette butt, which has its own source of readily combustible fuel that is already burning, rather than simply a small dying heat source looking for fuel.

 

And as someone who has had both wood burning stoves and fireplaces for decades, I know it is not the sparks coming from the chimney that are the concern, nor the cause of house fires. Those sparks are a symptom of a fire burning inside the chimney, and this fire, which has a fuel of built up fuel is what will eventually cause a fire, not some sparks flying from the chimney.

 

And finally, as others here have noted, these sparks can and do happen 24/7. Anytime the engine changes load, which causes a change in exhaust temperature or exhaust gas velocity, accumulated soot on the inside of the exhaust pipe can get knocked loose and fly out the stack. And this again shows the nature of these sparks: While attached to the metal of the exhaust pipe, they are not getting hot enough to burn, but when the very thin flake of carbon breaks free, the heat of the exhaust heats the carbon to glowing. Once that heat is removed (outside the stack), the carbon's surface area quickly cools it below the glowing stage.

 

Lol, your soothing justifications for why we shouldn't care, that live embers loft past peoples heads in aft balconies, is comforting. But at 57, I'm not just now arriving on earth, so I too could itemize my reasons for concern, but we will leave it alone.:D

 

 

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Edited December 15, 2015 by MTJSR

[chengkp75]

Lol, your soothing justifications for why we shouldn't care, that live embers loft past peoples heads in aft balconies, is comforting. But at 57, I'm not just now arriving on earth, so I too could itemize my reasons for concern, but we will leave it alone.:D

 

 

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And I'm 63, but I've worked with these sparks for 40 years, so I don't get overly worked up about them. So, you can worry for both of us.

[cormike1]

Well the average person would not know those facts about embers, etc. and so would worry if they saw sparks flying past them. I know I would have but now I won't lol.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

I had that happen on one of my cruises and a report was also called in. If I remember correctly I was told that they were burning something and there was no safety issue. Scared the you know what out of me :eek:

[MicCanberra]

Because in 99.9% of the time, the stacks are high enough, and the wind in the right direction to blow the sparks away. Also, are you going to station crew on folks' balconies in the wee hours? "Excuse me, housekeeping, sorry to wake you but we need to stand on your balcony for a couple of hours"

 

Secondly, as you say, and I emphasize, it was suspected as being a cigarette, not proved. Also, balcony design has come a long way since the Star Princess.

 

And these embers or sparks are totally different from a cigarette butt, which has its own source of readily combustible fuel that is already burning, rather than simply a small dying heat source looking for fuel.

 

And as someone who has had both wood burning stoves and fireplaces for decades, I know it is not the sparks coming from the chimney that are the concern, nor the cause of house fires. Those sparks are a symptom of a fire burning inside the chimney, and this fire, which has a fuel of built up fuel is what will eventually cause a fire, not some sparks flying from the chimney.

 

And finally, as others here have noted, these sparks can and do happen 24/7. Anytime the engine changes load, which causes a change in exhaust temperature or exhaust gas velocity, accumulated soot on the inside of the exhaust pipe can get knocked loose and fly out the stack. And this again shows the nature of these sparks: While attached to the metal of the exhaust pipe, they are not getting hot enough to burn, but when the very thin flake of carbon breaks free, the heat of the exhaust heats the carbon to glowing. Once that heat is removed (outside the stack), the carbon's surface area quickly cools it below the glowing stage.

 

I suppose it is just another reason why people shouldn't leave clothes or towels on their balcony.

[cheekygirl]

Same thing happened to us on RC Liberty of the Seas this past week. I was on our balcony on the 10th deck around 4 in the morning. There were big chunks of burning embers and ash whizzing past me right off the balcony. I could have reached out my hand and touched them they were so close. Scared the bejeezus out of me. I looked up above and saw smoke coming from the upper deck. I immediately called the operator and they explained to me that it was routine maintenance being performed. I can understand why you were so concerned.

[srpilo]

We have noticed when sitting out by the pool to watch Movie's Under the Stars, especially at night, you can sometimes see embers come flying out of the funnel. Clear as day (so to speak).

 

I agree ..

 

I've seen embers from the funnels at night many times on various Princess ships

Srpilo

[WupperAV]

Gosh!:d

[Lucky TGO]

Wow very scary.

Tony

[Shogun]

Hi All

If you are up early you will often see an engineer on deck with radio , part of routine maintenance is to put a substance through the smoke stacks that cleans them result is burning embers.

 

Yours Shogun

[GUT2407]

Welding comes to mind.

 

The illegal cigar smoker looks to be the suspect in your complaint.

 

My thoughts exactly.

[chengkp75]

Hi All

If you are up early you will often see an engineer on deck with radio , part of routine maintenance is to put a substance through the smoke stacks that cleans them result is burning embers.

 

Yours Shogun

 

Yep, that would be the ground up walnut shells used to blast the soot from the turbochargers and exhaust silencers.

[Alaskan Joe]

:eek:

[Chunder Worthy]

Anybody every experience this?

 

I haven't personally but I DO know they rake in tons of money from us on these cruises. Perhaps the embers were from a source of something we wouldn't normally imagine....? ;)

 

[WupperAV]

Maybe they were cremating someone!

[mrs and mrs]

Very true that one.:eek: