Balcony Dividers Fueled Princess Fire...

[DaCruzNut]

From a local South Florida newspaper:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The mystery of what fed a surprisingly intense fire on a Princess Cruise ship last month may have an answer. Signs point to the plastic dividers between the balconies as a prime fuel source.

That was one conclusion of a report released Thursday by the British safety agency investigating the fire that killed one and injured 13 on the Star Princess cruise ship bound for Jamaica.

The report called for "immediate action" by cruise lines to mitigate the risk of another fire.

The dividers "generated intense heat and copious amounts of dense black smoke as they burned," said the Marine Accident Investigations Branch, which also urged cruise lines to evaluate within three months fire risk on balconies and replace "all inappropriate materials."

New cruise ships come with hundreds of balcony cabins, which are separated on the outside of the ship by partitions of cloth, plastic or metal. Dividers on Star Princess were made of polycarbonate, used in everything from sunglasses to compact discs.

The agency urged cruise lines to "take urgent action" to comply with a safety notice issued April 13 by the International Council of Cruise Lines, a trade group. Checking structural materials, particularly balcony partitions, was one of the recommendations in the notice.

Sprinklers, not now required on balconies, could be another addition under the safety review...

[GottaCruz]

Jeff, Would you want me to move this to Cruise Discussion?

[DaCruzNut]

Don't care.....

[sailinglisa]

The Star Princess repairs are completed and the ship is on it's way to Copenhagen to resume it's scheduled cruises starting on May 15. I received the following from a friend in email............

Princess told reporters today that in addition the repair

work from the fire, Lloyd also installed a drencher and

fire detection system on the ship's balconies as part of

the fire safety measures they said earlier they were

implementing. The plastic furniture on the balconies has

also been replaced with metal, and many of the balcony

dividers have also been replaced with noncombustible

ones. (The rest will be replaced shortly.)

The same upgrades are now being scheduled for the rest

of the ships in the fleet, and those will be completed

during the next six months while the ships are in

service.

Princess does want to assure all passengers that over

the next six months while the long-term measures are

being put in place, the short-term measures previously

announced, such as the 24-hour fire watches, will remain,

so passengers will not need to be concerned about fire

safety.

Now, I wonder if the rest of the cruise lines will follow suit? And what about those balconies that have teak furnishings? Will they be replaced?

[SKAOLboy]

i had a fire in my house a few years back, my mother stored her stuff in those rubbermade bins in the basement.... which were the fire started. it only took 15 minutes to totally distroy the kitchen floor, dining room floor and half the living room floor and to start creeping up the side of the plastic siding. all the fire fighters agreed it spread so fast because of the plastic bins.... needless to say, she stores most stuff in the attic now.

not really relivent...except to show that plastic is a nasty fuel to fires.

[Lisa63]

I am sorry to hear of your experience, SKAOLboy, and I thank you for sharing it with us. I, too, have items stored in plastic bins. I do so to keep them dry, but it may be time to rethink this.

Thank you for the updates, Jeff and Lisa.

[winner]

Perhaps the reason those plastic bins--and other plastic products--are so flammable is that most plastics are petroleum by-products.

[hazelson]

Scary stuff.