Carnival Freedom Funnel Fire

[F27TW]

I'm thinking there are a bunch of charter jets being readied to head to Grand Turk as we speak. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by F27TW

[Guest BasicSailor]

1 hour ago, d12j28 said:

If you use the @ sign in front of a name they should get an alert that they were mentioned. 

Like:

 

@chengkp75

You have to do it three times, Its like a Genie kind of thing. 🤩

[smokeybandit]

15 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

That being said, looks to be if the crew can't get enough water pressure to the top of that wing/ funnel to put the flames out, not a lot of soot cleaning is going to happen, unless its done by hand. 

Right, if that's all they have to do, it's still not likely something that could be done by the onboard crew. I don't know if they have the ability to direct all exhaust to a single side of the funnel or not to be able to limp to a maintenance facility. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by smokeybandit

[pc_load_letter]

2 hours ago, SeaHunt said:

 

The Shiplife on youtube has a video of an officer (can't get a good view to tell which one) discussing paint fumes with some passengers and what Carnival is going to offer them $$ (VERY nice compensation JMO) - that part starts about the 7:00 mark:

 

 

 

Wow, so almost $3000 in compensation and having to sign an NDA?  guess that's generous but what is Carnival affraid of in terms of people speaking to the press? Could they be afraid of fines?

 

I was on a Carnival ship pre-pandemic and the maintenance crew were painting some railings. It was the strongest chemical smell I've ever encountered. I could see how some paint, if indoors, was making people sick.

 

Can anyone comment on the paint, varnish etc that ships use? Do they not follow OSHA laws?

[pinto18]

1 hour ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

Jesus Christ that’s terrifying, imagine being sound asleep in your room and being told to Abadan Ship

That kind of happened to us on the panorama. Sound asleep, suddenly a pounding on our door to put on our life jackets. All the muster rules go right out the window ! We ran out to the hallway and shortly crew came back and said go back to bed, false alarm. Sheesh!!

[smokeybandit]

8 minutes ago, pc_load_letter said:

Wow, so almost $3000 in compensation and having to sign an NDA? 

NDA? Oh hell no.

Better be upping that compensation before I sign anything like that.

[iria64]

2 hours ago, JT1962 said:

Your best alternative is probably Mardi Gras for 7 nights leaving the same day.  You would probably still need to change return flights, unless you were staying a couple of days after the cruise. 
 

Maybe a trip to Disney World, Universal Studios or Sea World is a good alternative if you can’t change flights easily.
 

Actually, Disneyworld is not possible as I read that all park reservations are gone for the weekend.

[csm5986142]

3 minutes ago, iria64 said:

Actually, Disneyworld is not possible as I read that all park reservations are gone for the weekend.

 

I was just looking at the reservations calendar also - that is correct, sold out Friday, with very limited availability the rest of the weekend.

[sfaaa]

2 hours ago, Bostwick girl said:

. Sure hope Carnival comes up with something for those affected by this!

 

Bing Bong. This is the captain speaking. Everybody heads over to Margaritaville. Drinks on the house.

[DTL321]

What a tough position to be in! I am hoping those with reservations this weekend get a call and accommodated on other sailings... There are other sailings also from Miami. Maybe Carnival could offer these guests a coach transfer to/from Miami from the Orlando International Airport?

 

I do wish all those waiting that they get a response as soon as possible, I know I would not be happy waiting by my phone/email for what is happening! Especially so soon. Good luck. 

[kleibo]

It's funny - I'm the type of person who buys the insurance on almost everything (except for household items), but I get for plane, cruise, land based vacation, concert tickets, even on my certified pre-owned cars and I have used the insurances numerous times for various reasons, it's always worked out and it's been a benefit that I've had it. 

Then others never take it, never will and have never had to use it.   But I guess it just takes one time............

[chengkp75]

I was alerted by another poster to come to this thread, I don't have notifications enabled.  I've opened this thread twice, so I will try to answer things in order that they were posted, and if it repeats what a later poster stated, so be it.

 

It looks nothing at all like the Triumph fire.

 

The damage is to the fiberglass funnel cover.  You will notice that the engine exhaust pipes (steel) are still sticking out.  So the fire did not get that hot to melt the steel.  Depending on what caused the fire (I'll discuss later), I don't see anything that would prevent the ship from sailing, it looks like just the architectural fairing is damaged, that doesn't even support the exhausts.  Looking again, it looks like one exhaust pipe is drooping, and this appears to be a smaller exhaust, so likely either a boiler or incinerator (my guess is boiler), so they likely had an uptake fire in the boiler.  Even then, the ship has two boilers, so they can operate with one out for repairs.

 

Soot in the exhausts is a good guess.  If the engines are maintained properly, the turbochargers are cleaned every night (the cause of the soot on the aft balconies) by injecting ground walnut shells to "sand blast" the soot off the turbocharger blades, and then the nut shells carry up the exhaust and knock soot buildup off the exhaust and it all goes up the stack.  If not done regularly, or properly, it could result in soot buildup.  My thought, though, is that there was a leak in the exhaust pipe (there are flanges that connect sections (some are visible on the exhaust pipes sticking out of the damaged wing), and if a gasket at one of those flanges leaked, soot would build up outside the exhaust, but inside the funnel, and a sudden rise in heat of the exhaust gas could have heated the exhaust pipe to the point where the soot ignited.

 

This is not major damage, it is not even structural.  No way the ship is out of service for 4-6 months. They likely have spare funnel parts for newbuilds that they can ship over to replace this.  Scrapyard?  Really?  And, as for sailing back, even if they have to go slow, using only the engines that exhaust on the other side, the ship is perfectly safe to sail, even with passengers, the decision to drop off passengers would be a schedule decision, not a safety one.

 

Yes, burning fiberglass gives off toxic fumes.

 

The fire hoses have 150psi at the nozzle, which can give a reach of around 100-150  feet vertically, but that assumes you are aiming at a 45-75* angle.  That would require you to be within 50-150 feet of directly under the fire.  So, hoses can't reach as far up as you'd think, without some protection for the fire team working directly below the fire.  And, there is no fire suppression system in the funnels.

 

As for soot cleaning, if there is no fire, you can climb up inside the funnel, with a hose, and spray from up there, not down on deck.

 

As for whether the ship will cancel future cruises, that I cannot comment on, but from a maritime engineering and safety standpoint, there is little to keep the ship from sailing.

[jas1178]

10 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

from a maritime engineering and safety standpoint, there is little to keep the ship from sailing.

Thank you chengkp75.  I always appreciate seeing your very informed perspective on cruising issues.

[cruisingguy007]

The Norwegian Escape was supposed to be a small "scrape" and be "insignificant" and we saw how that turned out. Hopefully, these predictions are correct on this one but fire tends to ruin things you can't see. Hoping for the best.  

[BlerkOne]

16 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

They likely have spare funnel parts for newbuilds that they can ship over to replace this. 

The ships Carnival has built these days have short, fat, ugly funnels. I'm not sure the tops are interchangeable. Maybe with some high temp duct tape an artistic license they can improvise something.

 

 

[BlerkOne]

On Magic, Carnival tends to overcompensate, and they know not everyone is going to sign a NDA. It may well be more than anyone could get, once you subtract out lawyer fees.

[chengkp75]

3 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The ships Carnival has built these days have short, fat, ugly funnels. I'm not sure the tops are interchangeable. Maybe with some high temp duct tape an artistic license they can improvise something.

 

 

It wouldn't surprise me that they have the molds for the funnels, even the old ones, stored at Fincantieri.

[mfs2k]

31 minutes ago, kleibo said:

It's funny - I'm the type of person who buys the insurance on almost everything (except for household items), but I get for plane, cruise, land based vacation, concert tickets, even on my certified pre-owned cars and I have used the insurances numerous times for various reasons, it's always worked out and it's been a benefit that I've had it. 

Then others never take it, never will and have never had to use it.   But I guess it just takes one time............

If you buy it every time and you travel often and you use it once it’s probably not worth it. 

[chengkp75]

5 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

The Norwegian Escape was supposed to be a small "scrape" and be "insignificant" and we saw how that turned out. Hopefully, these predictions are correct on this one but fire tends to ruin things you can't see. Hoping for the best.  

And, for the Escape, most of the delays were caused by the difficulty in getting to and getting steel into the places that needed it.  For flames to be that high up the funnel, the fire was in the funnel, not down lower like an engine room fire.  There is little of a structural nature inside the funnel, which is why they can make them out of fiberglass.  I have the feeling that the central portion of the funnel is steel, which is why the damage seems to stop abruptly where the wing attaches to the central funnel.

[cruisingguy007]

8 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The ships Carnival has built these days have short, fat, ugly funnels. I'm not sure the tops are interchangeable. Maybe with some high temp duct tape an artistic license they can improvise something.

 

 

 

Hey, it worked on the Glory when it was rear ended. 

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, markp9114 said:

 

Oh man...Didn't book insurance for our flights or cruise, so now figuring out how to salvage this family vacation. Does anyone know how to search for cruises that are leaving this Saturday from Port Canaveral? 

Carnival would refund your money for a cancelled cruise and almost certainly any non-refundable expenses, and likely more.

 

 

[cruisingguy007]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

And, for the Escape, most of the delays were caused by the difficulty in getting to and getting steel into the places that needed it.  For flames to be that high up the funnel, the fire was in the funnel, not down lower like an engine room fire.  There is little of a structural nature inside the funnel, which is why they can make them out of fiberglass.  I have the feeling that the central portion of the funnel is steel, which is why the damage seems to stop abruptly where the wing attaches to the central funnel.

 

Hopefully, you're right. Carnival could certainly use a break right now. They keep getting kicked while they're trying to get up. 

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

Wonder if they can just replace the one wing of the funnel or if the whole thing has to come off?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

6 minutes ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

Wonder if they can just replace the one wing of the funnel or if the whole thing has to come off?

 

Just cut/burn the other wing so it's symmetrical  😄

 

Tom

[Roscoe13]

Just now, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Just cut/burn the other wing so it's symmetrical  😄

 

Tom

From whale tail to fail tail!!