A fire broke out on the morning of Friday, September 20, 2019 on the Carnival Legend while the cruise ship was sailing into Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, according to Crew Center. The popular cruise related website stated that the master of the ship made an announcement around 7:15 a.m.  for firefighting teams to respond to the engine room 5 vertical stack 2.

A cruise passenger mentioned the fire to Carnival’s head cruise director and brand ambassador John Heald:

 

Notwithstanding the positive spin on the report, there is no such thing as a “small fire” on a cruise ship.  All fires present an obvious danger to the passengers and crew.

The deadly Star Princess in 2006 started from a smoldering towel on a passenger balcony caused by a cigarette.

The best known engine room fires involved Carnival ships, the Carnival Splendor in 2010 and the Carnival Triumph (a/k/a the infamous “poop cruise”) in 2013. The engine room fires disabled both cruise ships which had to be towed back to the U.S.

The last engine room fire involving a Carnival cruise ship involved the Carnival Sensation in February of this year.  Carnival, which inevitably calls fires on its ships “small” and “quickly extinguished,” denied that a fire even occured. It claimed that this was just a “smokeless event,” notwithstanding accounts from passengers, including a news produer, that the fire created smoke “so thick you could not see.” Read Smoke But No Fire on the Carnival Sensation?

There have been other instances where cruise passengers reported that a fire occurred during a cruise which Carnival denied, including a fire reported on the Carnival Pride in 2015.  I call this the “smoke but no fire” excuse.  Carnival tried to convince the passengers after a fire broke out on the Carnival Splendor in 2000 that what they smelled was just a “flameless fire.” You can hear “there’s-smoke-but-no-flames-or-fire” characterization on this announcement recorded on this YouTube video of the Splendor fire which disabled the ship.

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Update: Carnival released the following statement:

“Friday while in Alaska, Carnival Legend experienced a small fire in the engine room that was quickly extinguished by the fire suppression system and the ship’s team.  Guests and crew were not affected.  The incident did not impact the ship’s itinerary and it is continuing on its 9-day cruise as scheduled.  Carnival Legend departed Vancouver on Tuesday, Sept. 17.”

Travelling with Bruce, a fast growing Facebook-based web page, reported on the fire on its page:

Photo Credit: Carnival Legend in Alaska – Carnival Cruise Line