Coast Guard: Cause of cruise ship fire was a leak

[jsr]

Source: Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) -- A leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled a Carnival cruise ship at sea, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days, a Coast Guard official said Monday.

In an email after Monday's conference call, Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Diaz described the oil return line that leaked as stretching from the ship's No. 6 engine to the fuel tank.

Andrew Coggins, a former Navy commander who was a chief engineer and is now a professor at Pace University in New York and an expert on the cruise industry, said the fire could potentially have been serious.

If the crew hadn't reacted quickly and the fire suppression system hadn't worked properly, he said, "the fire from the engine room would have eventually burned through to other parts of the ship." Engine room fires that can't be suppressed generally result in the loss of the entire ship, he said.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DISABLED_CRUISE_SHIP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-02-18-18-17-08

[Duer 157099]

1. I knew it! Darn that wikileaks!!

kidding

[davidpdx]

2. I have no doubt it was faulty maintence

Cheap bastards didn't actually inspect the ship because that would take time and money.

[RedCloud]

3. No! It was a bomb planted by Spanish. (worked in 1898)

[BlueManFan]

4. Remember the Maine!!!!!!