Flammable Cruise Ship Balcony Dividers

[CharlesB]

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (Sept 13, 2006, Travel section) reports that the cruise industry is "scrambling" to replace the polycarbonate balcony dividers on many ships ("Cruise Lines Scramble to Replace a Fire Hazard"). Turns out, many dividers are petroleum based and extremely flammable, and once ignited they can liquify and the fire spreads quickly. Balcony dividers were reportedly the cause of the Star Princess fire that destroyed 283 cabins and resulted in injuries and one death.

The lines cited in the article as having flammable balcony dividers are Princess (13 ships), Holland American (10 ships), Carnival (8 ships), Royal Caribbean (3 ships), Oceania (3 ships) and Disney (2 ships).

Tim Rubacky of Oceania was interviewed in the article and he indicated that the day after the Star Princess fire, Oceania Cruises initiated a no smoking policy mandating that anyone caught smoking away from the designated areas on the pool deck or observation lounge would be dropped off at the next port. Rubacky reported that nobody has had to be expelled from an Oceania ship for violating the rule since the smoking ban.

Turns out, balconies on cruise ships do not come under existing fire regulations, since they are part of the "extenal area" of the ship which need not be sprinkled.

Work is underway by the U.S. Coast Guard to have the International Conventions for the Safety of Life at Sea upgraded to reflect the new realities of balconies on cruise ships. The article indicates that not all cruise lines plan to replace the flammable dividers, but that Royan Caribbean has allocated $1.5 million to retrofit three ships, and Holland America has finished retrofitting balconies on the Maasdam and Ryndam.

Since I have not see anything on the cruise message boards about the balcony divider hazard and how the cruise industry is responding, I thought it might be of interest to mention the WSJ article here.
Charles

[timbo89]

On my last cruise onboard the Regatta, it seemed to me that the balcony dividers were made of metal. I was on the 8th deck.

Perhaps I was wrong.

[Druke I]

Yes, the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Treaties will probably be updated in the near future - but implementation will be staged over a several year period, and like many revisions in the past, may cover newbuilds only, with existing ships coming under "grandfather" clauses which exempt them unless undergoing major refurbishment/rebuilding.

[Rickey 88]

Timbo89 is quite correct - all balcony dividers on Oceania are metal. In addition, the balcony furniture is metal (with a web fabric backing). And finally, smoking of any kind is prohibited on all balconies. And from what I've observed, this is strictly enforced....

[timbo89]

Thanks, Dick.

I didn't want to contradict the WSJ, as they usually have fairly good factual basis for their reporting. However, I was almost certain they were metal.

[jfb128]

I just read the article and Oceania was not cited as having the flammable dividers. The only mention of Oceania was referring to comments made by Tim Rubacky on Oceania's strict enforcement of its zero tolerance policy of its no smoking policy on balconies. Perhaps you saw a different article.

[sacway]

I'm looking at the quite interesting 09/13/06 pg D1, D5 artitcle in the WSJ. The cause of the Star Princess fire has yet to be publicly established, I think, though the question has been discussed online in some detail (particularly on the Princess board) and it may well have been a cigarette tossed from a public deck that landed on something flammable (towel, bathrobe) left on a balcony table or chair. Whatever the fire's origin, the plastic balcony dividers contributed as one means for the fire spreading. A graph associated with the article shows Oceania Cruise needing to replace flammable balcony dividers on 3 ships, with a source listed as "the companies" The chart is not discussed in the article, which notes that Oceania now has a zero-tolerance policy on smoking in balconies and cabins.

I encourage anyone interested in ship construction and external fire safety to read the threads on the Princess board. I'm going there now to read the post-WSJ article thread; I imagine (but am not certain) the current thread might include a link to the earlier, very interesting and informative technical thread on fire prevention and ship construction that ran for a couple weeks way back when the incident occurred. That thread included links to an amazing range of photos of many separate elements of the fire-exposed superstructure with comments from several engineers and fire dept types explaining what worked, and what didn't work. As usual, the passenger(s) are among the most hapless and unpredictable elements.

I'm happy with the zero-tolerance policy on smoking on Oceania. This December is our first Oceania cruise and I'm hoping it goes well. (For those who might remember my angst early on about the "country club casual" attire, let me say that there are several polo shirts that have "joined" our family and are in rotation -- who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?)

[jfb128]

I just found another copy of the article on the web from the WSJ itself and it includes the graph. The feed I got for the WSJ article previously did not include the graph. It appears the graph is stating that Oceania needs to replace the balcony dividers.

[Hairy Harry]

:eek: Having cruised with Renaissance in the past, we enjoyed the No Smoking Policy. Recently we cruised with Oceania on Nautica. It was a fabuluous cruise with incredible service, great food and overall enjoyment. One thing I would change is the smoking policy instigated by Oceania which allows smoking at any time on the pool deck. Being very sensitive to cigarette smoke, I had no choice but to stay on the opposite side of the smokers when by the pool, limiting my choice of lounges by 50 per cent. I could avoid the Horizon Lounge smoking area, which was very smelly, but the pool area was more difficult. Let the smokers smoke where the smoke will disapate more rapidily than in the cubby hole on the pool deck.

[sacway]

The technical fire discussion on the Princess board is at
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=319701
It's 26 pages long!
The changes on the Princess ships include sprinklers and heat sensors on the balconies, in addition to partition replacement.
Looks like I will again feel safer on board than in my automobile.