It was November 2010 when fire broke out on Carnival Splendor, disabling the 3,300-passenger ship. At the time, the reason for the fire was unknown. Now, the U.S. Coast Guard has completed its investigation into the cruise ship fire and has a report.
Identifying mostly human factors in what could have been an easily-extinguished fire, the Coast Guard report places the source as an engine failure.
“While the fire was eventually self-extinguished, the failure of the installed CO2 system and the poor execution of the firefighting plan contributed to the ineffectiveness of the crew’s firefighting effort,” the report said, as noted by a Miami Herald article.
Initially thought to be out of service for a short time, Carnival Splendor finally returned to service three months later after being thoroughly inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard and Lloyds Registry, a ship classification society, which monitored the progress of repairs during the ship’s dry-dock period.
As a result of the Carnival Splendor incident, Carnival Cruise Lines began a renewed focus on cruise safety that was further energized by the grounding of Costa Concordia and other safety-related events in recent years.
In April, after February’s Carnival Triumph incident, when an engine room fire knocked out the ship’s propulsion, Carnival Cruise Lines announced the beginning of a comprehensive fleetwide technical enhancement program.
Part of that program was the formation of a Safety & Reliability Review Board, third-party experts to provide perspective and input for continuous improvement across the line’s fleet. Just this week, Carnival announced new members of that board including a two U.S. Navy Rear Admirals and two airline safety experts.