Interesting story on fire safety of verandah dividers

[Baseball Lover]

www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1016432

[sail7seas]

Our second week on Maasdam, this August, they were working Navigation Deck replacing all of the verandah dividers. They replaced all wood with steel and new fireproof dividers were installed......I watched them do it to our balcony and the abutting ones.

 

I was told the original construction of the ship included some wood in the framing. It is all being replaced with steel.

 

One has to imagine this is connected to the horrible Princess fire.

 

HAL is safety first, second, tenth.......SAFETY!!!

 

[Karen112999]

Thanks for the link baseball lover. I hadn't heard any updates on the fire in awhile and found this quite interesting and would explain what was so flammable... As a smoker myself - and a balcony smoker, I have always been quite careful where I smoke and how I discard my cigarette. But to be honest, I was not aware of how flammable the current materials used are and am more surprised that whoever designes the ships were not more aware of this matter. We are talking relatively new ships here.

 

Thanks again

Karen

[griswalds]

Now this is why I love this website, the info is incredible. Thanks baseball lover.

 

Is the HAL ship Amsterdam being upgraded as well? If it does it have plastic dividers?

 

Griswalds

 

www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1016432

[sail7seas]

If they are replacing the dividers on one ship, I am sure they are replacing all non-fireproof dividers on all ships.

 

We happened to personally watch them replace the dividers for our Suite on Maasdam.

 

[serendipity1499]

The article quotes HAL as saying: Holland America Line has finished retrofitting balconies on its Maasdam and Ryndam ships, according to Rose Abello, a Holland America spokeswoman..

 

As a former smoker I would love to see all HAL's ships as "Non Smoking" .:), but realize it's a long way off..Many people in all parts of the World are smokers & are permitted to smoke any where they want..They don't have such strict anti-smoking laws as we do in the US..

 

If they banned smoking on ships it would cut out a great many prospective passengers.. I don't think many cruise Lines would take that chance..:( Too bad..

 

Fire at sea is so frightening..It makes me angry when people insist on taking Irons or Candles on board when they know they are banned.. Betty

[AAAAmerican]

Fire safety is vital aboard as we all know more from the incidents on and aboard the ships.

 

Even at the MUSTER Fire Drill what better time to advise all the Cruise Guests on that too ... --- ...

 

And with a captive audience with every soul accounted for it trains the crew better too...

 

Does Holland have safety grants still/?\ funds are available from so so many sources even corportae backing.. has any one from H A L or CCL:NYSE inquried into this at Walter KIDDE?

 

:D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Baseball Lover

 

Thanks for the link to the article. Very interesting.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I was wondering when HAL would be replacing the dividers on some of the older ships - thought about it right after the Star Princess fire.

 

Glad to hear that they have been taken care of.

[nurseblissful]

so are the dividers on the newer ships already metal? or do they have to be changed to. specifically, the noordam. anyone know?

[nurseblissful]

so are the dividers on the newer ships already metal? or do they have to be changed too?? specifically, the noordam. anyone know?

[Scubachick84]

Many people in all parts of the World are smokers & are permitted to smoke any where they want..They don't have such strict anti-smoking laws as we do in the US..

 

 

serendipity1499, I think that you'd be surprised by the international smoking bans and find that many countries are stricter than the US is. This is probably due to the fact that smoking laws in the US are determined locally rather than federally. You can read about which countries have bans here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans

 

If the world's governments could only let go of the tax income they get from tobacco products I'm sure the laws would be stricter.

[bepsf]

While I applaud the lines for taking our safety into consideration by retrofitting where there was previously no concern...

 

"...relatives of Mr. Liffridge, the passenger killed in the March fire, say more needs to be done. "We’re campaigning to have smoking banned on all cruise ships," says daughter Lynnette Hudson, who has formed a cruise–ship fire–safety awareness group. The family is also planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Says Ms. Hudson: "This should have never happened.""

 

...I suppose we should also outlaw icebergs, rogue waves, hurricanes - and while we're at it, make all the railings 6' high so folks cant jump/fall over?

 

I'm not a smoker, and I love being in smokeless restaurants and bars, but this whole "We need to outlaw (blank)" is just getting ridiculous.

[serendipity1499]

serendipity1499, I think that you'd be surprised by the international smoking bans and find that many countries are stricter than the US is. This is probably due to the fact that smoking laws in the US are determined locally rather than federally. You can read about which countries have bans here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans

 

If the world's governments could only let go of the tax income they get from tobacco products I'm sure the laws would be stricter.

 

Agree with you somewhat but do you really believe the majority of the Worlds Governments are ready to give up such a lucrative tax base..

 

There are so many countries in the world: Africa has approx 50, Asia approx 45, Europe approx 45, South America approx 13, Oceania approx 14, etc etc..

 

Check out that list again & you will see only 16 % (30) countries out of almost 190-200 countries in the world have some kind of a smoking ban & many of them only within a few provinces/states..

 

That leaves 80 to 85% of the world which has no smoking ban..How many smokers there are, I don't know:confused:.. However I do know that in our travels we've encountered umpteen more smokers than in the US & Canada. Many of them pay astronomical cigarette taxes but continue to smoke.:(

 

Don't you agree that is a lot of prospective passengers for the Cruise Lines to turn away! If I was a smoker, I would not be on a ship for a week that did not permit me to smoke...;) Thank goodness, I gave it up 29 years ago...

 

It will happen eventually, but probably not within the next 10-15 years..In the meantime we all have to be vigilant about safety on board..Betty

[Scubachick84]

It's true, the governments won't ban tobacco because of the massive tax income they get, which is a shame I think. Seems hypocritical of them to ban it everywhere and yet still sell it and continue to increase their profit margin.

 

I think (and I have no facts and figures to back this up) that out of those 30 or so countries with smoking bans comes a large majority of cruise passengers. I don't think I've ever run into anyone from say Slovenia or Peru in any of my travels, not that they don't travel of course.

 

It is true that if I were a smoker I wouldn't go on a cruise if it were non-smoking. I keep reading statistics that say that fewer teenagers are picking up smoking so maybe in a few years it won't be such an issue.