The was a fire yesterday on the Emerald Princess shortly after it was floated out of drydock in Victoria, according to a crew member who wishes to remain anonymous.
The fire reportedly occurred on deck 3 aft, while the ship was loading lifeboats from drydock in Victoria. The situation was described as “very hectic because many crew members were on the lifeboat loading team and were not available to be on the fire team to fight the fire.” The crew fought the fire from deck 4. The ship just floated out of drydock in Victoria, Canada. After one hour the alarm was called off. The fire was caused from a de-humidifier inside the bulk head in the dry storage. The crew member stated that “I passed by deck 4 and there was heavy smoke in the air and fire teams cleaning up.” There apparently was no-hi fog fire suppression system at this location and the crew fought the fire with water.
“I give credits to all involved because there was so much happening at the time with the the float out of drydock. The ship’s officers and crew kept everything in order.”
The Emerald Princess is scheduled to leave Vancouver today at 5:00 P.M. and, after a three-night Pacific Coast Cruise, will arrive in Los Angeles, California on the morning of Thursday, April 18th.
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Update: The crew member commented on the fact that not all of the lifeboats had been loaded back on the Emerald Princess when the fire broke out:
“When a ship goes into dry dock the lifeboats are lowered and stored dockside for repairs. When the ship is floated out there is no space in the Victoria dry dock to load the lifeboats before sailing out. The ship must leave the dock area and load the lifeboats in the bay area. In our case they just started the loading when the fire broke out. Imagine looking out to see the lifeboats floating around the ship as we were on fire. It’s a very organised job getting the lifeboats raised back up. Having a fire at the same time just made things very difficult.”
Another crew member who also requested to remain anonymous added: