Fire on Board the Liberian Passenger Ship Ecstasy, Miami, Florida ...

Analysis 70 Marine Accident ReportThe Safety Board subsequently investigated the May 20, 2000, fire on board theNetherlands cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam in which a passenger was forced to crawl on hishands and knees along the passageway outside his cabin due to the heavy smoke. As aresult of this and previous accident investigations, on July 11, 2000, the Safety Boardelected to classify Safety Recommendations M-97-37 and -38 “Closed—Reconsidered”and issue safety recommendations directly to the individual cruise ship companies servingNorth America. Safety Recommendations M-00-6 and -7 asked that cruise companies,without delay, install locally sounding alarms in accommodations areas to afford peoplethe maximum available escape time during a fire.The Safety Board has been very pleased by the response of the cruise ship industry.As of April 2001, 12 companies, representing about 85 percent of the North Americantrade, 49 had responded to the Safety Board regarding the installation of locally soundingalarms in both crew and passenger accommodation areas. One company, CelebrityCruises, indicated that it had installed locally sounding alarms in accommodation areas asrequested. The Safety Board, therefore, classified M-00-6 and -7 “Closed—AcceptableAction” for Celebrity Cruises.Eleven companies responded that they supported the recommendations andintended to install locally sounding smoke alarms on their cruise ships. The elevencompanies included American Classic Voyages, Carnival Cruise Lines, Crystal Cruises,Disney Cruise Line, Holland-America Line/Westour, Inc., Norwegian Cruise Line,Princess Cruises, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, Renaissance Cruises, Royal CaribbeanInternational, and Seabourne Cruise Line (Cunard Cruise Lines). One respondent, DisneyCruise Line, indicated that, pending identification of the technology needed to modify itsexisting smoke detector systems, it had equipped its vessels with a system that triggers aspecial ring on the telephone in guest and crew cabins when smoke is detected. As a result,the Safety Board classified M-00-6 and -7 “Open—Acceptable Response” for thesecompanies. The Safety Board classified M-00-6 and -7 “Closed—No Longer Applicable”for Premier Cruises because it is no longer in operation.On January 22, 2001, the Safety Board requested information about the status ofM-00-6 and -7 to the following companies: Costa Cruise Lines, Orient Lines, RegalCruises, Royal Olympic Cruises, and Silver Sea Cruises. To date, the Board has yet toreceive a response. The Safety Board has, therefore, classifies M-00-6 and -7 “Open—Unacceptable Response” for these five companies.On February 7, 2001, the ICCL issued a press release indicating that its memberlines had unanimously agreed to establish mandatory industry standards stipulating,among other requirements, that the vessels of each ICCL member have “smoke alarmsthat sound in all passenger and crew staterooms and adjacent corridors as well as on thebridge.” The ICCL release further stated that, for most guidelines, member lines wouldintegrate the industry standards into their SMS to ensure compliance through internal andexternal audits.49 At the time of the accident, about 99 cruise ships operated out of North America. The 11 respondingcompanies owned 83 of the 99 vessels.