New rules for wheelchair users

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Yes, the person picked up the battery, carried it down two flights of stairs and dumped it on the atrium where the crew quickly extinguished.

It wasn't charging though, it started to glow while his wife was sitting on the scooter as they arrived in their cabin.  He disconnected it and ran down to try to get help but had to drop it in the Atrium when it started to ignite.  They man posted his full account on here after it occurred. The thread is called "Smokey on Iona".

[Snow Hill]

There are lot of unsafe cheap lithium batteries on the replacement market, I have no idea whether the one on the Iona incident was one of those, but unfortunately people go for the cheapest but not necessarily the safe option when purchasing. 
 

 

 

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, AchileLauro said:

Yes I know that people don't always act rationally in an emergency, I've seen the result a couple of times where someone has tried to carry a burning chip pan outside. On another occasion a chap discovered an unexploded incendiary device and decided to carry it to his local police station.

 

It's very reassuring and good to know that the company has obviously carried out a post incident investigation and decided to be pro active and provide "fire boxes".

Does anyone on this forum know where the fireboxes are located, I have never seen one on our recent cruises on Iona? 

[AchileLauro]

20 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Does anyone on this forum know where the fireboxes are located, I have never seen one on our recent cruises on Iona? 

Passengers don't need to know where these fire boxes or bags are located. The policy should always be as would be with any land based building, that all fire fighting equipment should only be used or operated by persons who have received training and not by passengers/customers who could endanger themselves or others.

[terrierjohn]

17 minutes ago, AchileLauro said:

Passengers don't need to know where these fire boxes or bags are located. The policy should always be as would be with any land based building, that all fire fighting equipment should only be used or operated by persons who have received training and not by passengers/customers who could endanger themselves or others.

That's alright then, my mobile battery suddenly  bursts into flames, so I ring someone, but who I have never seen a phone list in my Iona cabin, even the phone has no visible directory. So I set off running round the ship to find a fire alarm, I cannot recall even seeing where these are, so 2 hours later I find a fire alarm  by which time my cabin and the surrounding area is a mass of flames!!!!

[FangedRose]

35 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

That's alright then, my mobile battery suddenly  bursts into flames, so I ring someone, but who I have never seen a phone list in my Iona cabin, even the phone has no visible directory. So I set off running round the ship to find a fire alarm, I cannot recall even seeing where these are, so 2 hours later I find a fire alarm  by which time my cabin and the surrounding area is a mass of flames!!!!

I know you are using hyperbole for effect, but I've never seen a room phone (cruise or land based) that has marked fast dial shortcuts marked on the phone itself. And 0 is always the number for reception.

[molecrochip]

34 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

That's alright then, my mobile battery suddenly  bursts into flames, so I ring someone, but who I have never seen a phone list in my Iona cabin, even the phone has no visible directory. So I set off running round the ship to find a fire alarm, I cannot recall even seeing where these are, so 2 hours later I find a fire alarm  by which time my cabin and the surrounding area is a mass of flames!!!!

In cabin phones have an emergency button or you can call 999. The muster drill announcement also says that if you discover a fire you hit the nearest alarm call point.

 

Every ship has an emergency control room usually at the back of the bridge. It always has at least one person sat there ready to respond. If they need the loo, someone else steps in - it’s never unmanned.

 

Hit an alarm call point, CCTV is immediately available, the exact location is shown on one of the many screens. Alerts are also made in the engine control room. Depending upon ship, when a certain number of control points are triggered alerts are made to captains cabin, HGM cabin and medical.

 

I know someone who set the cabin smoke detector off with too much deodorant. They had a call from the emergency control room on the bridge within 10 seconds.

[kalos]

I seem to remember a muster drill saying " If you see a fire onboard use the nearest

fire alarm or nearest phone by dialing 999 or 111 and tell them "fire."

This alerts the officer on the bridge of location so action can be taken .

 

Edit just seen Moley's as I posted, far better explanation.

Edited 3 hours ago by kalos
of location

[FangedRose]

I've kept quiet up to now, but have been following because of a cruise I took last year on Aurora.

 

I have been on many cruises over the years and there had always been a handful of wheelchairs, scooters, rollators etc. But, on that cruise I noticed that the number had increased. There was frequent "traffic jams" at the pinch points and a lack of accessible seats in the theatre. I did wonder was just me that noticed this, but at dinner another passenger (walking stick user) also commented on it (without any prompting). She said she was actually worried about what would happen in an emergency due to the numbers of passengers who would obviously need assistance.

 

I've had two cruises on Aurora since then and the numbers of passengers who would require assistance has decreased.

 

I don't know the intricacies of booking when requiring a mobility aid, and how these changes were implemented, but I do know that when booking on board very early in the process I am asked "do you have any mobility needs/problems". And 'if that changes let us know asap". So the question is asked and it is made clear that the onus is on me to declare it.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

That's alright then, my mobile battery suddenly  bursts into flames, so I ring someone, but who I have never seen a phone list in my Iona cabin, even the phone has no visible directory. So I set off running round the ship to find a fire alarm, I cannot recall even seeing where these are, so 2 hours later I find a fire alarm  by which time my cabin and the surrounding area is a mass of flames!!!!

Plan B. Chuck it in the ogging.🤣

[zap99]

25 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

I know you are using hyperbole for effect, but I've never seen a room phone (cruise or land based) that has marked fast dial shortcuts marked on the phone itself. And 0 is always the number for reception.

On Anthem our room steward gave us a card with numbers on it, one being his. Not too difficult to help customers. Unfortunately just as easy to make it hard for them.

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, FangedRose said:

I know you are using hyperbole for effect, but I've never seen a room phone (cruise or land based) that has marked fast dial shortcuts marked on the phone itself. And 0 is always the number for reception.

All phones on RCI and Celebrity have fast dial shortcuts listed on the front of the phone. Maybe other cruise lines and hotels have these as well, but my memory is not as good as it was.

[FangedRose]

11 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

All phones on RCI and Celebrity have fast dial shortcuts listed on the front of the phone. Maybe other cruise lines and hotels have these as well, but my memory is not as good as it was.

As a frequent passenger on P&O I can assure you that this is indeed the case on P&O. There is also a card adjacent to the phone with relevant numbers on too.

[Ardennais]

5 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

So I guess parking a number of scooters in the MDR foyer during dinner might not be a good idea either?

Whereas parking 2 or 3 in a secure area, which could be equipped with a CO2 system, should be very safe.

This was the case on Queen Victoria in January. I honestly couldn’t believe how many scooters and various mobility aids were parked in the MDR foyer. It was like a store display! 

[kermchem]

4 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

There are lot of unsafe cheap lithium batteries on the replacement market, I have no idea whether the one on the Iona incident was one of those, but unfortunately people go for the cheapest but not necessarily the safe option when purchasing. 
 

 

 

My day job is that I teach inorganic chemistry at degree level. My lecture to 2nd year students yesterday made clear to them that there is no lithium in a standard lithium ion battery. To a chemist it is all lithium(1) or lithium ions not lithium(0) or lithium metal. One electrode is lithium intercalated in the layers of highly reduced graphite (yumm, that lot will burn in air, look for videaos of potassium graphite), the other electrode is highly oxidised cobalt oxide with lithium ions between the layers (yumm, high energy material) and the electrolyte between them is an organic solvent mix (yumm, that will burn as well). Now the chemists invented this stuff, then the engineers packed it into a small volume, and someone started to mass produce them down to a price, and finally let the general public mishandle them.

Just think, if I could buy unleaded petrol in a plastic bucket from the garage down the road, pour it into a watering can and trickle it into my car while my neighbour smoked in his garden - then there might be consequences. In most developed countries we have protocols that discourage this. We also need protocols to be developed that we do not treat car, phone, tablet, laptop, powered wheelchair lithium ion batteries like they are AA/AAA or lead acid batteries. We also need the engineers and manufacturers to get the right cost / safety balance.

 

[kermchem]

15 hours ago, Selbourne said:

There are an awful lot of non wheelchair users who use lifts to go down just one or two decks as well, so presumably those folk would struggle in an emergency situation as well. We’ve done plenty of cruises on Aurora and the average age of passengers has been around 75. As that’s an average, for every passenger under 75 there is one who is over 75. Trying to get all those passengers off the ship safely in a real emergency would be a nightmare. 

I am overweight, and well below that average of 75. On recent Azura cruise we used stairs as much as possible, only occasionally resorting to lifts after a tiring day. Our cabin was several decks above and opposite end of ship from food and entertainment. We did plenty of steps, and came back lighter than I went. BUT, I can assure you that I would have trouble getting up or down stairs if the ship were not level.

Evacuating a modern mega cruise ship in rough sea conditions must scare those reponsible for planning it, before anyone mentions evacuation chairs. Plan A must be to keep everyone in place.