In a Marine Safety Alert issued yesterday the US Coast Guard urges ship owners to verify and test their Fixed Fire Fighting systems to be sure they work right.
The two Coast Guard alerts “refer to the Carnival Splendor” and the fire that shut down the ship November 8, 2010 verified marine industry journal Professional Mariner.
Noting the ship’s crew responded correctly, the Coast Guard said the disabling fire was “responded to and extinguished by the vessel’s quick response team firefighters using portable extinguishing equipment.”
Where the alert part of this development comes into play refers to Splendor’s fixed firefighting system which had been recently inspected but failed to operate as designed. It seems the directions on how to operate the system and how it actually operates are different, what the Coast Guard called “a recipe for failure”.
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The Coast Guard issued a strong recommendation for ship builders and owners to verify and test installations to insure they will “operate correctly during an emergency”.
As Gadling reported previously, propulsion systems, electricity, climate control, water and entertainment were all disabled, and the ship was stuck 200 miles off the coast of San Diego as a result of the fire.
Flickr photo by gnr