Fire on the Star Princess

[cloveygrl]

According to Princess this morning. The fire only affected one cabin. At this point no future sailings are being effected

 

Having experienced a small house fire - it does not matter if its only 1 cabin. The fire is not what does the damage its the smoke. It seeps into everything. Every single item in the house had to be removed and either professionally cleaned by damage restoration people or thrown away. Things like plastic etc just had to be thrown away and totally replaced (either because they were uncleanable or because often the cleaning cost was higher than the purchase price).

 

They are going to have to strip every nook and crany I bet.

[sexierlady]

Please don't think I am cold hearted, I feel for all those people on board that this happened to. I am booked for the March 26th crusing of this ship yep folks that is 3 days from today. I am so confused, We have to wait till Princess decides what they are going to do. However, lookin at those pictures I don't believe that it will be ready for Sunday's cruise, if so do I really want to get on that ship. My stomach has been in knots since I have heard about this and for all those on board. So I really am not cold hearted.

 

Anyone heard what they are doing?

[Bigdogwon]

Iwould advise anyone with future plans on Star Princess to call your T/A immediately. Obviously it will be a long time before she sails again, with the structure damage, cabins etc. She may have to go into dry dock for an extended period and this is only after a full investigation. It will be interesting from a logistical point of view, will the repairs be done before the European season? Will they be done in the US or will it have to go to th shipyards in Europe?:(

[captlou]

I was always against smoking on cruise ships. I was on the Sapphire Princess a month ago and I chastized a passenger when he threw is cigarette butt overboard. Despite signs, warnings, drills and what not, a lot of passengers still have no concept of the dangers of smoking onboard. How many of you would be in favor of banning cigarettes on cruise ships ??

I'm all for banning cigarettes altogether, everywhere. But that's just this crazy, fanatical ex-smoker talking (quit in 1974, and have never touched one since). No matter how many times smokers are told to NEVER throw cigarettes overboard, they continue to do so; and we've seen it on every one of our 14 cruises. If it is determined that it was a cigarette that caused the fire, or even if it isn't, I hope that the cruise lines all take a hard look at their smoking policies. No smoking on open decks, perhaps? They'd still throw their butts off of their balconies.

 

My sincere condolences to the family of the passenger who died, and my best wishes for eveyone else on the ship. I hope you all get home safely, without too much undue hassle.

 

I was on the Grand Princess in February for the "tipping ship" incident. That scary experience pales in comparison to a fire at sea. At least on this ship the captain ordered a head count to make sure all passengers were OK. "Captain U-Turn" on the Grand didn't, and it still disturbs me. I hope you can all sleep at night after this...... As it's been said, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

[MarciaL]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com

 

From MSNBC see picture. One dead, 11 injured. That ship is a mess. Balcony's melted - looks like 4 to 5 decks involved.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[bdjam]

If they put up an effort I apologize now.

 

To the point, does the Princess, or any cruise crews even understand damage control? This type of result from the believed cause today given suppression systems, and properly equipped and trained parties is inexcusable. I must believe that the secondary systems saved lives. Anyone else have an analysis? Do we have any independent account of injures (pax and crew) yet?

I’ve been trying to stand by and watch the carnage (excuse the pun), but I can’t. Here we go again – just like the Grand Princess incident all of the cruise ship/cruise line experts who post here as a hobby are trashing the cruise line before anyone knows what happened. We’ve already seen blame assigned to faulty sprinkler systems, cigarette smokers (who I’m sure will be trashed thoroughly because people seem to think that’s what you do to people who smoke) and how to Princess’ lack of damage control.

 

Of course cruise lines understand damage control – and Princess drills their crews at least once a cruise. Do you think they want to let a ship go up in flames and do nothing about it? Do you think they could legally sail a ship without Coast Guard approval of their damage control response?

 

And as for those who think some careless smoker did this, you could be correct – the number of people who don’t heed the safety warnings about throwing cigarette butts over the side is appalling. On the other hand, perhaps someone had a few too many cocktails at the casino and thought lighting a candle on the balcony might be a good idea. So we should no longer allow drinking or smoking on cruise ships, huh?

 

And how many posts are from lawyers who are already fishing?

 

You can speculate all you want here, but until the facts are known, none of the speculation is worth the server space that’s being taken up. Perhaps we should be lauding the crew of Star Princess for controlling this incident with a minimum loss of life. That whole ship could have gone up and 4000 people could have died. Didn’t happen – wonder why?

[Firefighterhoop]

I assume the ship is equipped with sprinklers in each cabin. The fire should have been confined to the cabin of origin? CNN has reported that three decks of cabins were "damaged" by the fire?

 

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.

[Firefighterhoop]

I assume the ship is equipped with sprinklers in each cabin. The fire should have been confined to the cabin of origin? CNN has reported that three decks of cabins were "damaged" by the fire?

 

I assume the ship is equipped with sprinklers in each cabin. The fire should have been confined to the cabin of origin? CNN has reported that three decks of cabins were "damaged" by the fire?

 

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.

[Kerry&LuAnn]

I am booked for the March 26th crusing of this ship yep folks that is 3 days from today. I am so confused

 

Clearly this ship will not be sailing in three days. Have you talked to your travel agent? Is it possible to get on another ship so you can continue with your vacation, and then work out the refund issues with Princess later?

[Devlin_02]

I do not, in any way, mean this reply to be taken in a negative way. ...this all out and the CC board isn't the place to assign blame.

 

Nothing negative taken. I actually will reserve my final judgment, as if it is really worth anything, until I review the Coast Guard report.

[A Sixth?]

2 ship tragedies in such a short amount of time.:(

 

CC's articles are pretty informative, guess that explains why it's so hard to log on today. A lot going on in the cruise industry this week.

 

It's actually three in three days, you probably didn't hear about the BC Ferry just sunk of BC, 99 of 101 crew and passengers safe, two still missing.

 

It could have been worse, there could be as many as 750 aboard this one.

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060322/ferry_sink_reax_060322/20060322?hub=CTVNewsAt11

[biddyboo]

This is my first visit, and I cant believe what I am reading from a lot of you. Who cares what the balconies are made of, does it really matter to you personally that a cigarette caused this fire, is 7hrs at a muster station without food going to kill you? The fact is, peoples lives were at risk, this could happen to any ship, and as an ex crew member, I can assure you everything that could've been done would've been. For those who were onboard, thank your lucky stars you are alive, and for those who are due to sail on the Star, you are insured, you will get a refund, go on another cruise, get over it, and stop wallowing in self pity that your dream cruise will not happen, and speculating as to who is to blame.

[cloveygrl]

Obviously no one sent you the memo on what the Internet is for.... and well if what you have to say is relevant so are everyones else's thoughts.

 

This is my first visit, and I cant believe what I am reading from a lot of you. Who cares what the balconies are made of, does it really matter to you personally that a cigarette caused this fire, is 7hrs at a muster station without food going to kill you? The fact is, peoples lives were at risk, this could happen to any ship, and as an ex crew member, I can assure you everything that could've been done would've been. For those who were onboard, thank your lucky stars you are alive, and for those who are due to sail on the Star, you are insured, you will get a refund, go on another cruise, get over it, and stop wallowing in self pity that your dream cruise will not happen, and speculating as to who is to blame.

[Devlin_02]

I do not, in any way, mean this reply to be taken in a negative way. ...this all out and the CC board isn't the place to assign blame.

 

Nothing negative taken. I actually will reserve my final judgment, as if it is really worth anything, until I review the Coast Guard report.

[Debi_D]

I just found out from Good Morning America that my UPS driver and his wife will be on the show at 7 AM EST and that they are OKAY! Good news from a terrible situation....

 

Debi

[pattison]

This comes from my mother, who is onboard....

 

 

The captain just announced that the cruise is terminating tomorrow. We are at Montego Bay in Jamaica. Somehow (??) Princess will get everyone flown home tomorrow. We'll see. We'll be on the ship overnight.

 

This has been a strange experience. It began at 3AM with the captain coming on the entire ship intercom and telling the ?? team to proceed to deck 11 room xxx. Not five seconds later the captain come on again with the same announcement but he sounded panic-stricken. Hmm - not good. We got up and decided to get dressed. With that the fire alarm sounded and I looked out the door and the firedoors had closed. We decided to hotfoot it. Next second the 7 short and 1 long alarm (proceed to muster stations) sounded and a crew member was running down the hall yelling "The ship's on fire, the ship's on fire, get out of your rooms". OK - You never saw us move so fast. Certainly got the heart racing. We flew down the steps with our life jackets. By this time the guides were in place and amazingly there was no panic among the passengers.

 

Everyone proceeded to the muster stations and you could have heard a pin drop. Complete silence. The life boats were dropped down and they inflated several rafts. The captain did a good job of updating everyone. He admitted the fire was smaller but still burning. The crew was amazing. I guess all the drills pay off. Luckily we were on the opposite side of the ship from the fire. The starboard side was allowed back in their rooms by 9:30. We sat at the muster stations for 6 1/2 hours. People on decks 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 from the 300s through the 500s were allowed to gather whatever they could salvage and get off the ship to be put up in a hotel in Jamaica. People were allowed in the rest of the rooms but can't go out on the balconies. We were told earlier that we'd be staying in Jamaica overnight. Now, we've been informed that the cruise is cancelled and we will be flown home hopefully tomorrow.

 

So - that's the long tale of our day so far.

[bubbadog]

cigarettes didnt start the fire,the person smoking them did(loui),might as well ban cars on the roads to cause they kill too,and all those gallons of alcohol that everyone has to have in their rooms,that fuelled that fire,if you dont have anything nice to say then keep it to yourself( lou):mad:

[cruisemeaway]

I would appreciate it if someone could email me any pics of the ship and damage. Please email to: bwest53@yahoo.com

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Barbara

[tomc]

Nothing negative taken.

Thank you. As they say, over on the professional pilots' message board (pprune.org), "The first cause is never the final cause." And they also insist it's never just one thing, but a chain of two or more which, if one element were missing, would not have happened.

[SusieS]

They need to ban cigarettes.....period.

[bdjam]

This is my first visit, and I cant believe what I am reading from a lot of you. Who cares what the balconies are made of, does it really matter to you personally that a cigarette caused this fire, is 7hrs at a muster station without food going to kill you? The fact is, peoples lives were at risk, this could happen to any ship, and as an ex crew member, I can assure you everything that could've been done would've been. For those who were onboard, thank your lucky stars you are alive, and for those who are due to sail on the Star, you are insured, you will get a refund, go on another cruise, get over it, and stop wallowing in self pity that your dream cruise will not happen, and speculating as to who is to blame.

Thank you for your post – if the damage is as severe as has been reported, it’s obvious the crew on Star Princess did right and kept the passengers on board safe.

[AWOL]

I kind of wonder why the ship cannot be sailing the next scheduled cruise. The substructure is not a structural part of the ship so sailing should not be a problem. It is still sea worthy and it seems the only thing damaged was a few rooms. Just block off the damaged rooms and get on with business until a berth comes open in a shipyard. While the ship is cruising, the areas that need repairing could have the replacement sections prefabbed and the ship could be repaired in a couple of weeks once in the yard. I would not think it would have to go to a drydock as the hull was not damaged.

 

Regards

Roger

[cnmiranda]

It's actually three in three days, you probably didn't hear about the BC Ferry just sunk of BC, 99 of 101 crew and passengers safe, two still missing.

 

It could have been worse, there could be as many as 750 aboard this one.

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060322/ferry_sink_reax_060322/20060322?hub=CTVNewsAt11

 

 

No, I hadn't heard. Where was I? I usually keep up on the news too. Well, they say things come in threes, hopefully this is the end of an unfortunate cycle.:(

[Rence]

cigarettes didnt start the fire,the person smoking them did(loui),

 

I see far too many smokers who do not dispose of their cigarettes properly whether on land or sea. On land, brush and forest fires are caused by folks who just toss their cigarettes.

 

It is NEVER EVER EVER acceptable to just toss a cigarette or put it out on the ground. The smoker must be responsible for properly and safely disposing of it. On land, we need to enforce current litter laws, tossing a cigarette or putting it out on the ground is littering and those who do it should be fined.

 

On ships toss cigarettes overboard is a no-no and it needs to be enforced, the crew needs to watch for this and fine those who do it. Repeat offenders should be put off the ship in the next port. This is too dangerous to take lightly.

 

I'm not a smoker and not a big fan of the habit. But in this case it was specific irresponsible actions that caused the fire. Unfortunately these irreponsible actions are fairly wide spread and we need to take steps to ensure that those who smoke, act responsibily. Those who don't, should not be welcome onboard any ship.

[captlou]

I see far too many smokers who do not dispose of their cigarettes properly whether on land or sea. On land, brush and forest fires are caused by folks who just toss their cigarettes.

 

It is NEVER EVER EVER acceptable to just toss a cigarette or put it out on the ground. The smoker must be responsible for properly and safely disposing of it. On land, we need to enforce current litter laws, tossing a cigarette or putting it out on the ground is littering and those who do it should be fined.

 

On ships toss cigarettes overboard is a no-no and it needs to be enforced, the crew needs to watch for this and fine those who do it. Repeat offenders should be put off the ship in the next port. This is too dangerous to take lightly.

 

I'm not a smoker and not a big fan of the habit. But in this case it was specific irresponsible actions that caused the fire. Unfortunately these irreponsible actions are fairly wide spread and we need to take steps to ensure that those who smoke, act responsibily. Those who don't, should not be welcome onboard any ship.

 

Look out Rence, the trolls are probably preparing to flame you as we speak. Get out the popcorn gang, this could get interesting!