Balcony dividers may have helped fuel cruise ship fire

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The mystery of what fed a surprisingly intense fire on a Princess Cruise ship last month may have an answer. Signs point to the plastic dividers between the balconies as a prime fuel source.

That was one conclusion of a report released Thursday by the British safety agency investigating the fire that killed one and injured 13 on the Star Princess cruise ship bound for Jamaica.

The report called for "immediate action" by cruise lines to mitigate the risk of another fire.

The dividers "generated intense heat and copious amounts of dense black smoke as they burned," said the Marine Accident Investigations Branch, which also urged cruise lines to evaluate within three months fire risk on balconies and replace "all inappropriate materials."

New cruise ships come with hundreds of balcony cabins, which are separated on the outside of the ship by partitions of cloth, plastic or metal. Dividers on Star Princess were made of polycarbonate, used in everything from sunglasses to compact discs.

The agency urged cruise lines to "take urgent action" to comply with a safety notice issued April 13 by the International Council of Cruise Lines, a trade group. Checking structural materials, particularly balcony partitions, was one of the recommendations in the notice.

Sprinklers, not now required on balconies, could be another addition under the safety review...

Photo by Kevin Bryan, Montego Bay