THE GOVERNMENT has praised the speedy response to safety concerns on cruise ships after a fire broke out on balconies on the Star Princess in March.
Following the biggest investigation the Marine Accident Investigation Branch has conducted in a decade the chief inspector of marine accidents Stephen Meyer has produced his report.
In it he congratulates the speed with which the International Maritime Organisation brought in new regulations governing materials that can be used to construct balconies and how Princess Cruises and its owners, the US cruise giant Carnival, have implemented these new rules.
“Carnival began replacing all combustable outside dividers on the 26,400 balconies of its 81 vessels immediately following the incident and expects to replace all of them with non-combustable ones by the end of this year. This is a major achievement.
“IMO has already issued interim recommendations to cruiselines with balconied vessels and has propsed safety ammendements to the Safety Of Life At Sea Convention (SOLAS) which will be considered for world-wide adoption as early as next month.
“This is well ahead of the IMO’s normal timescale for introducing new safety measures and recognise, I believe, the thoroughness of the MAIB’s investigation and the importance of the recommendations we have made.”
The blaze broke out on March 23 when the Star Princess was was travelling between Grand Cayman and Montego Bay in Jamaica. The ship had 60 Britons on board at the time but none were hurt.
One man, who had suffered a heart attack, died and 13 other passengers were treated for smoke inhalation. Fire fighters were beaten back by the flames and then found it difficult to access the fire because the dividers between balconies did not open.
This problem is being corrected on existing ships and new builds are being constructed with thermal barriers and opening dividers.