From the Princess Star

[Kittybork]

I copied this from the Princess site:

 

I have to tell you all that after reading some of the posts on my thread I am appalled at some of your posts.

 

Let me set the record straight, it was not a cigarette that probably caused the fire. I spoke to the person who pulled the actual fire alarm and she's been interviewed by police and officials. It looks like someone did this on purpose. The initial fire spread way to rapidly and there was some kind of accelerant on the balcony. They believe in the possiblity that either some through a moltov cocktail or poured liquor over onto the balcony and then threw a cigarette. The fire went from being a small thing to an inferno in a matter of seconds. Staff told me that more went on than we're being told and that it was a serious major fire that spread very quickly. Our sprinklers didn't go off properly and some of the fire doors didn't shut like they were supposed to.

 

My husband and I were sound asleep and were woken up around 3:10 by banging. I smelled smoke and opened the blinds to see many embers flying onto our suite balcony hitting the wood chairs. Within 1 minute my husband opened the other curtain to now see a wall of fire on our double balcony. The sliding door then cracked in his face and we turned and ran. It took almost 15 minutes from the time the girl pulled the silent alarm to when the alarm came over for everyone to hear. My room was on fire prior to the captain sounding the alarm. There was no time to grab much of anything unless I wanted to risk my life. My cabin was C414 and was smack dab in the middle of the fire where the balconies were even gone.

 

We made it to our muster station and everyone was terrified. They kept telling people it was okay, but we knew differently from what we had left. It took them 4 hours to complete roll call. They finally gave us some water from the tap and we would turn in our glasses and they would reuse them. We all watched the life boats being lowered. Some of the crew was telling people we would have to abandon the ship. By am when the fire was completely out they had no reason not to bring bottled water and some crackers or rolls for people to eat. The captain kept saying that they were working on opening the restuarants so we could eat and we couldn't care less, we just needed something. One flight down were tons of food sitting. We had one of the crew sleeping on the floor when he was to be working. Some of the crew were eating Mike and Ikes. My daughter almost passed out and even though lots of the crew were outside hanging out, they wouldn't let her get any fresh air by standing by the open doors.

Our friends we were traveling in were in a different muster station and they quickly were given bottled water and had air turned on hours prior to us. Their roll call was done quickly and the entertainment crew that was manning their stations took great care of them. We had elderly people and people with different illnesses to needed help. For those poster who said that the diabetics should have grabbed their stuff, you have no idea what is was like or if they had time. If there was a large fire in your cabin I highly doubt you would have stopped for anything but rather ran for your life.

 

They allowed us to go back to our cabin and I lost it. One at a time with staff. What was once two sliding doors witha wall inbetween was now

a large gaping hole.

Everything was burnt, wet, and black. There was nothing for us to salvege, nothing. My husband had his pajamas and I had a pair of shorts and shirt on. At no time did the staff on any level and a senior staff should have taken those of us who lost everything and spoken to us to prepare us. They already knew what our staterooms looked like. All afternoon I would have to go back to the pursers desk to see what was going to happen to us only to be told to come back in an hour. On one of my trips I had to endure an idiot in front of me would was pissed and loudly complaing how he had $40 worth of casion chips and it was crazy he had to wait and "they better give me my money back". It was very hard to hear that. At 3 pm I finally took it upon myself to book my own hotel and called in a favor at a hotel that I stayed in in November. I also used the computer to book my own flight home on American Airlines. We felt like we were on our own.

My hair still stinks and I still have soot under my nails and on my feet that no matter how much I scrub it all won't come out. My chest is killing me and I'm still coughing up black crap. Can you imagine what it's like to walk into a hotel and have some guys make a joke how it smells like the hotel is burning down and laugh at us.

[GoinCruisin]

Just to give credit to the poster of this, it is Carolyn (cjskids)... Laura has a sticky in on the main page where you can link to an article they have as well. Thank goodness her family and our other CC friends were okay, and much thanks to Carolyn for keeping us posted... I can't imagine going through what they went through.

[Cruising89143]

That is scary to read. I cannot imagine having to go through that. If they indeed find out that this was deliberately set by someone and are caught I hope that they have no mercy on them. One person died so there is a murder charge right there.

[GoinCruisin]

That is scary to read. I cannot imagine having to go through that. If they indeed find out that this was deliberately set by someone and are caught I hope that they have no mercy on them. One person died so there is a murder charge right there.

 

Gordon, go over and read her initial post... right after it happened. It gave me chills... Completely frightening :(

[Sean&Karen]

Do you have a link to the initial post?

[TrustNoOneKMC]

Not to sound really dumb, but how did they put the fire out? Were hoses available for use? Sprinkler system? Also, on the 11:00 news in ohio, they stated it was confirmed that the fire was started by a cigarette catching something on fire on the balcony. I am very sorry to hear about this tragedy, but I am relieved to know that very few people were injured, considering the amount of people on the ship. My sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the man who lost his life. Were any of the injured people burned, or were all treated for smoke inhalation?

[GoinCruisin]

Do you have a link to the initial post?

 

You can get to it from the announcement on the Carnival board (up top, in the blue, from Laura, about the Star Princess fire)... just follow the links. It's also on the Princess board, I believe as a sticky.

[GoinCruisin]

Not to sound really dumb, but how did they put the fire out? Were hoses available for use? Sprinkler system? Also, on the 11:00 news in ohio, they stated it was confirmed that the fire was started by a cigarette catching something on fire on the balcony. I am very sorry to hear about this tragedy, but I am relieved to know that very few people were injured, considering the amount of people on the ship. My sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the man who lost his life. Were any of the injured people burned, or were all treated for smoke inhalation?

 

I don't think we will know until the results of the investigation are released... everything at this point would be speculation at best.

[Cruising89143]

I guess if there is a positive in this situation then it would have to be the fact that they were able to put this fire out in the middle of Caribbean. When the Ecstasy caught fire just outside of Government cut, they had help with putting out the fire. I often wondered how the cruise lines would handle something this large. You can bet that every ship is being looked at a little closer right now to insure that everything is up to snuff.

[Cruising89143]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=320099

 

Another thread from a passenger that was aboard the ship.