Its been a week since a fire erupted on the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas.  

There has been widespread praise for the actions of the crew in extinguishing the fire, and for the manner in which the cruise line’s public relations representatives kept the public informed via Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media.

But there has been little focus on the facts and circumstances surrounding the fire. What caused it? Why did it take two hours before the fire was extinguished?  And what can be done to prevent a cruise ship fire like this in the future?  

Few people are expressing interest in these basic questions. Most discussions at cruise and travel sites address the cruise line’s compensation of reimbursing the cruise fare, chartering flights back to Baltimore, and providing a discount on a future cruise.

The cruising public seems focused primarily on obtaining a fun and affordable vacation.  When things go wrong during cruises, the focus turns primarily on whether passengers are going to get their money back and obtain other reimbursements for the lost vacation.    

The few websites which have addressed the issue of why the fire occurred almost uniformly seem to conclude that the public should not speculate, and everyone should wait until the "official report" is released.

What a naive thought. There still is no official report released into the cause of the fire which disabled the Carnival Splendor off the coast of Mexico in November 2010.  That was two and one-half years ago. The investigation is the responsibility of the flag-of-convenience country, Panama. Although Panama permitted investigators from the U.S. Coast Guard to be involved, it is Panama which is running the investigation.

The Bahamas is the flag-of-convenience country for the Grandeur of the Seas and is responsible for the investigation into the cause of the fire.  Although the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were invited to be involved, the Bahamas will be calling the shots. The Bahamas is also the flag state for the fire-disabled Carnival Triumph and there is no "official report" yet about that fire four months ago,  

Will the Bahamas prepare an objective, thorough, honest and timely report into the cause of the Grandeur fire? Don’t expect one anytime soon.  

Many people who have contacted us point out that the aft of the cruise ship where the fire started is a location where crew members catch a quick smoke.  There is also a crew bar on the stern of the ship. Did a crew member flick a cigarette which ignited the mooring lines?  If true, that would be an unpopular theory considering the great amount of praise that the crew members are receiving for extinguishing the fire.

If a cigarette was involved, was it flicked from an upper passenger balcony?  We will probably never know the culprit. A cigarette can cause a fire which smolders and then suddenly bursts into flames, like the deadly Star Princess fire in 2006.

Was it a fire of an electrical origin? Some have suggested that. Was it arson and intentionally set? I have heard that too.

Why was the fire not automatically extinguished?

Should the public be asking these questions? Is it appropriate to demand honest answers sooner than later?

Or should we avoid speculation and wait several years to see if an "official report" is finally issued by the Bahamas several years from now? 

Have a thought? Please leave a comment on our Facebook page about this case.

June 3 2013 Update: We received this interesting information from a experienced crew member who wishes to remain anonymous:

"If the fire initiated on deck 3 aft, this is the place where are located all the mooring ropes, and it is also the mooring deck. Now you know from the fire on the Ecstacy, how much are dangerous the polypropylene mooring ropes, once they are ignited. The mooring deck 4, is also officially a smoking area for crew, it seems strange, but it is what it is. All crew, specially from galleys goes in the aft mooring deck for smoking and mingling together, although this is nonsense, still Royal allows to do so. I personally think that a cigarette butts once again, started it all. I cannot conceive anything else. To be noted that in the aft mooring deck, there is also the CO2 station, with all the batteries of big CO2 cylinders that are deputed to extinguish fires in the engine rooms, if this area is compromised, CO2 will be affected as well. Also, I am sure Royal made all the possible moves to make disappear the 2 barbecue grills that are located there, mooring deck aft is also the place where once a month all crew gather together for a nice party, usually hosted by the deck department…….

Since the fire on the Ecstasy, SOLASs wanted to install a sprinkler system also in the mooring deck, but this system is manually activated then is not activated automatically. If the sprinkler were automatic, fire would be extinguished more quickly. In the aft mooring deck, is located also the paint locker, a source also of a lot of things that can get easily fire.

One deck above the mooring deck, there is the crew bar area, where it is possible to smoke as well. It is also the place where a lot of crew get trashed with alcohol. I don’t exclude also, that someone might throw a cigarette overboard, and this returning back on board, ignited the mooring ropes,,,,very easy, again happened in the past, with Princess and the fire in the balconies. The crew bar is open deck, one deck above the mooring deck, on this level there is also the emergency diesel generator. One deck above, on level 5, there are the spare life rafts and the crew muster stations.

This time they were lucky, because a massive fire, could have the ship totally impaired, CO2 stations, emergency generator, crew muster stations, spare life rafts might all getting burned……."

      

Photo Credit: Reuters