2 years and 8 months after the Carnival Splendor was cast adrift after a severe engine room fire, the US Coast Guard have released their findings into what caused the fire.
There was a major mechanical failure in her number 5 diesel generator. The result was the fire that crippled the ships control panel.
It took the ships bridge crew 15 minutes to act on initiating the engine rooms Hi-Fog fire protection system as they had just reset the fire panel on the bridge at the time.
In those 15 minutes the fire grew and started melting wiring in the ceilings; shorting out the control panel. Soon enough, she was down to only enough power to run emergency systems.
The USCG also announced 5 recommendations they have:
- Recommend that Carnival Corporation remove the 40-second time delay in the automatic activation sequence for the Hi-Fog system.
- Recommend that Carnival Corporation review/ and continuously review their internal fire procedures.
- Recommend that on the next class survey by Lloyds for all Carnival Dream/Destiny class vessels, that they carefully inspect the CO2/Hi-Fog fire-suppressant systems in place in the engine rooms.
- Recommend that the USCG enhance their guidelines for evaluating fire drills as part of their inspections of foreign vessels. (similar to COC inspections)
- Recommend that the USCG advocate and make an improved guidance of fire drills for all SOLAS ships .
click to view full report (USCG)
photo via wikimedia