Fire on the Star Princess

[negc]

For the time being, we should extend our prayers and wishes to those passengers and crew who were directly affected by the fire and we should give thanks that the emergency procedures appear to have worked so well and that injuries and the one death (attributed to heart failure) were limited. Lets also hope that for a good while we won't have to read any posts asking how to skip the mandatory lifeboat muster.

[jaybyrd3007]

We had a major house fire and you dont think big things can catch on fire with small things, heck sometimes its hard to start a fire in the fireplace, but once it starts is spreads VERY VERY fast and the temp goes very high.

 

Someone already posted this but I imagine this ship smells very bad right now. Princess will prob have to remove alot of carpet, wallpaper etc.

[jennew]

we stayed in one of those rooms in January...my heart is so sad.

[KansasScrapper]

So far it doesn’t appear to be the cruise line or cruise ships fault. So actually they don’t have to do anything. That is a good reason you should by the travel insurance. You never know when something will happen that is out of everyone’s control.

[Dolphins]

Did you see the pictures of the ship? More than a "few" cabins were involved and many balcony rails seem to have melted away. How about letting the authorities investigate the incident completely, determine what started the fire and why and how it spread to involve so many cabins, and then what fueled the fire with the intensity that caused the damage to the balconies that is evident from just an external view? How did the fire spread from balcony to balcony, room to room? Were there flammable materials present on the balconies? Were bedding, drapes and carpet fire-resistent? A lot of questions have to be answered before this ship can be allowed to carry passengers again and until those facts have been established it would be foolhardy to insist that the ship should just block off the damaged area and continue sailing. The answers to some of the questions might even effect other ships currently sailing.

 

I totally agree. The biggest question that needs to be answered is why the sophisticated fire detection and suppression systems (sprinklers) required by SOLAS on all modern cruise ships did not confine the fire to the cabin of origin?

[Firefighterhoop]

Is the ship built from flammable material? How could the fire spread so fast and cosume so much? Now I read that 150 cabins were damaged or/and distroyed. Okay Fox News where are you?

 

When the ship is moving it produces a wind, just from moving, the introduction of air into a fire makes it bigger, and will blow the flames. That is probabally how it spread from balcony to balcony so fast.

 

Now each balcony has at least some things that can burn (chairs, things people put on it, the flooring, and the plastic/glass looking stuff that surrounds the balconys.

[shipcafe]

I totally agree. The biggest question that needs to be answered is why the sophisticated fire detection and suppression systems (sprinklers) required by SOLAS on all modern cruise ships did not confine the fire to the cabin of origin?

 

I am of the school of thought that the flames would have licked up and out of the verandahs up to the one above it. The materials on the verandahs are highly flammable and (to my knowledge) I have never seen sprinkler or Hi-Fog heads out on the verandahs. You can see how the verandahs are tiered on these ships and how this would be possible.

I find it hard to believe that the fire was completely internal given the smoke detectors, sprinklers (or Hi-Fog), and fire doors. Small fires are detected and put out all the time on ships ... many more than we even know of publicly.

Can this be a pending new measure for ships? .... Sprinkler and Hi-Fog heads installed on verandahs?

[Firefighterhoop]

I totally agree. The biggest question that needs to be answered is why the sophisticated fire detection and suppression systems (sprinklers) required by SOLAS on all modern cruise ships did not confine the fire to the cabin of origin?

 

Again, the sprinklers will not control a fire moving on the outside of a ship.. If the current speculation pans out, that a cigerette on a balcony started it, here is my hypothesis as to what happened.

 

The Origional balcony started on fire. There are no sprinklers on a balcony. The ship was headed at a resonable speed for Jamaica, creating it's own wind. This wind helped the fire spread from balcony to balcony with nothing to stop it. Fire burns UP, thus causing more balconies above it to catch on fire.

It doesn't matter when the first cabin caught on fire. Only at the time that the sprinkler head in each cabin got hot enough, did it activate, (The heads activate independantly when each one gets hot) And the sprinkler's in each cabin only assist in extinguishing the fire in that cabin, while the balconies are still burning, and the fire is still entering other cabins, their sprinkler systems burn, etc etc etc.

 

You have several things that burn in the cabin - The drapes, the carpet, the beds, etc etc.. Once it got hot enough to get into the cabin (Either by melting the glass on the door, or at times people sleep with the balcony door open, the fire is already free burning in the cabin before the sprinkler activates.

 

The sprinkler system is what saved the other cabins on the ship... As I said before, the fire probabally did not spread from Cabin to Cabin. It spread from Balcony To balcony, and then from Balcony to Cabin. This scenario has played out in many hotel and appartment fires across the country.

 

Just my professional opinion

[Firefighterhoop]

I am of the school of thought that the flames would have licked up and out of the verandahs up to the one above it. The materials on the verandahs are highly flammable and (to my knowledge) I have never seen sprinkler or Hi-Fog heads out on the verandahs. You can see how the verandahs are tiered on these ships and how this would be possible.

 

I find it hard to believe that the fire was completely internal given the smoke detectors, sprinklers (or Hi-Fog), and fire doors. Small fires are detected and put out all the time on ships ... many more than we even know of publicly.

 

Can this be a pending new measure for ships? .... Sprinkler and Hi-Fog heads installed on verandahs?

 

It could, but the balcony would have to be surrounded on all sides - otherwise flames could still go up and over. It may help slow a fire though..

[Dolphins]

You are correct, this ship has a sprinkler system, however, the fire appears to have started outside the ship area on the balcony, more than likely spreading balcony to balcony and then impinging on the staterooms. Each sprinker is operated independantly, and not firing until that sprinker head reaches the right temperature to melt the "Stop" and the water - or in the ships case high pressure mist, starts to flow.

 

That being said, back to the theory of the fire starting outside working it's way in. Picture a big appartment building, a fire starts on a 4th story deck, it will burn the decks outside, while working its way in. By the time it made it's way into the first room, with the speed of the ship producing a wind to fuel the fire, several balconys may have already ignited. Several people sleep with their door open, and some closed, so It may have taken a while for the first room to catch on fire. (probabally the first room to have the door open)

The fire probabally did not spread room to room, but did more then likely spread from balcony to balcony and from balcony to room which activated the sprinkers individually, controlling it in each room.

 

If the fire started on the balcony, and we don't know that for sure yet, what is there on any balcony that would provide enough fuel for a fire to enable it to spread from deck to deck, 2 chairs and a small table? It would appear that such extensive fire spread would necessitate the fire engulfing the contents of the cabin which again raises the question of why the sprinklers did not control the intensity of the fire? By the way, I am a retired fire officer FDNY, and not a lawyer as some may suspect.

[Firefighterhoop]

You do have a point about needing a sizeable fire load, now paint this picture in your head, small things on balcony ignite -sending sparks to several balconies,

 

Those balconies slowly ignite, finding the first one with an open door to the cabin, which at that point, starts to ignite drapes, carpeting and several other things to cause even more sparks. Because the door is open, it is a vented fire being force fed by wind, which is going to yes, set the sprinklers, but also take longer to do so. (Obviously not much longer, but long enought to get hot enough to spread while the balconies keep going up, and the wind keeps spreading the flames), and then what I said about going into each room, plays out..

[Mrs. Flamed FXSTC]

This is directly from the statement on Princess Cruises website. It was posted at 2:00 pm PST. I know there were a couple of folks trying to find out what the state of their upcoming cruise is and hadn't seen anyone post this info yet.

 

"The following cruise, scheduled to depart Fort Lauderdale on March 26, will also be cancelled. Similarly, passengers booked on this sailing will receive a full refund, the same 25 percent credit towards a future cruise, and Princess will additionally cover out-of-pocket travel expenses as a result of the change.

 

Over the course of the next few days we will fully assess damage caused by the fire and plan to make the necessary temporary repairs to enable the ship to maintain its onward schedule. A plan for the repairs to the affected cabins will also be drawn up, and passengers booked in those cabins will be advised as soon as possible of our forward plans."

[tomc]

shipcafe said:

The materials on the verandahs are highly flammable.

I thought SOLAS would have forbidden something like that.

[bdjam]

A smoldering cigarette is suspected as the cause of the blaze, said Horace Peterkin, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, who toured the ship after it docked here.

 

The ship was not seriously damaged and would sail back to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday, Peterkin said.

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1760845&page=1

According to Cruise News Daily, Princess has made no official statement as to the cause of the fire and denies that it stated the fire might have started due to a cigarette. That may turn out to be the cause, but Princess is not making any guesses at it.

[KansasScrapper]

So far it doesn’t appear to be the cruise line or cruise ships fault. So actually they don’t have to do anything. That is a good reason you should by the travel insurance. You never know when something will happen that is out of everyone’s control.

[prophotogirl]

My heart goes out to all that are affected by this horrible incident. :(

[Princess Chatterer]

How in the world is Princess going to maintain the Star Princess' "onward schedule" after a fire like this? What are the Princess execs smoking?

 

There is no way Princess can fake the public and Wall Street out with a mumble jumble press release about getting back on an onward schedule.

 

The Star Princess is toast for some time to come. End of story.

[sueandkent]

Here's a picture of the damage to the STAR Princess.

 

[ATTACH]18953[/ATTACH]

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are on the ship and their families.

 

Our cabin from our Nov. sailing is among those burned. Makes me sad to think of that beautiful ship looking like that and how horrible for those onboard. Thankfully there weren't too many injuries or deaths.

My thoughts also go out to those who have been looking forward to future sailings on her who will now have to wait for repairs. It's all very disappointing and tragic.

[negc]

According to Cruise News Daily, Princess has made no official statement as to the cause of the fire and denies that it stated the fire might have started due to a cigarette. That may turn out to be the cause, but Princess is not making any guesses at it.

Maybe we should follow their example and wait until the authorities finish their report and announce their findings before we go overboard with speculation.

[lovetohavefun]

Heart breaking! Just heart breaking! I feel so sad for all those affected by this.

[lovetohavefun]

I just heard from my mother, who is a passenger on the Star Princess cruise going on right now that there was a big fire last night. Horns blew in the middle of the night to signal everyone to lifeboats, lifeboats were lowered to loading position, but it didn't sound like people were put in the boats. Apparently 120 rooms are out of commission on the boat! It sounds like they're headed to Jamaica, and that they might let the passengers off there. That's all the info I have...

 

 

 

I am so glad to hear that your mother is o.k. I hope everyone can get to speak to their loved ones so they may feel more at ease. It must be very scary for those on board as well as for all the families at home! I wish them all the best.

[Barry ATL]

Help me out.... what is there to burn on the balcony's? There is a wood rail, but isn't everything else plastic, rubber, glass, and steel?

[bostonlass]

They just showed it on our local news. They report that 150 cabins were destroyed but that the ship is able to sail back to Ft. Laud. My goodness!!! I will pray for all that have been injured!

[wasup254]

Local news here in Fort Lauderdale said that the ship will be in Montego Bay for maybe a week as the authorities go over the ship, the US Coast Guard is already there. Then another channel said that they ship might leave tomorrow for Fort Lauderdale, no one knows at this point, not even Princess.

 

Has anyone a clue where they would dry dock Star?

 

We are scheduled for the transatlantic on 4-30

 

Marlene

[Lane40]

Help me out.... what is there to burn on the balcony's? There is a wood rail, but isn't everything else plastic, rubber, glass, and steel?

 

Barry....I have been having the same difficulty understanding how this could of happened from a balcony fire. There are things on a balcony that can burn, but to make a fire of this extent just makes no sense to me.