It's nice to see incidences were the emergency was properly dealt with and safety measures were correctly implemented and working even though this was a fire they weren't designed for. We often only hear of the incidences were everything went wrong and people died, but we don't see the ones were things went right.
Excellent point, I too would love to see more anti-horror stories like this, where it focuses on how modern systems have saved the day, rather than lessons being learnt the hard way
@@FPVsean have a look at the air traffic control channels here on UA-cam. The videos are virtually all about emergency or near emergency situations that are managed and dealt with.
usually with stories like this there is some egregious error on the part of staff or command in response to the disaster but in this case everyone did exactly what they were supposed to which is great to see
Just the person who either left their cigarette unattended outside, or worse threw it off a balcony thinking: "It's fiiiiine! It'll just go in the water", not only polluting but also ignoring the fact that the wind and draft could well bring it back onto the boat.
And illustrates even when doing everything correctly things can go very bad. (Even though in this case it was all fine it probully didn't look like it at some points)
@@arthanor9631 Typical smoker behaviour. I despise them. Too weak to quit, too weak to properly care for others, throwing away their trash everywhere. We just had a fire in the backyard of our company. Why? Because smokers hadn't properly extinguished their cigarette butt.
@Arthanor These kinds of incidents always reminds me of why I quit smoking when I was in my early 20's. It's not only bad for your overall health, but it also, will destroy others lives and properties indirectly, if you don't do it properly with care. Its more than usually comes down to our own errors and neglected behavior, be that good or bad. It's something we all must learn from not to repeat, even if we make a habit of out, in my eyes.
I don't know why but I always find it *extremely* satisfying to hear about emergency response scenarios where contingencies and backups are activated and a concrete and decisive plan is executed and powerful, effective steps are taken that actually work as designed
I agree, it's always wonderful to hear that the crew response was so orderly and immediate. Great crew training and great overall teamwork. Even in a case where some saftey systems failed, leading to a rapid and large fire growth, it was beaten with precision and planning. Captain and firecrews did their jobs perfectly.
The crew deserves a lot of credit here for handling the situation in a calm and professional manner, too often tales like this end badly because the correct procedures aren’t followed or done so badly!
This is my chief worry on a ship. The bulk of the crew is notoriously underpaid workers from 3rd world countries with high turnover rate.They could have just thrown in the towel and quit. Kudos to them for being professional.
For those wanting to know more about Highfog, it’s a pretty specific way of stopping a fire on a boat. It’s and extremely high pressure system, at around 100 to even 200 bars, which pulverize the water droplets into a thick mist. This, in a way, does 2 jobs at one time : Cooling the air and surfaces down, just like regular water fire systems Stifle the fire thanks to the mist blocking the oxygen access and trapping CO2 (just like CO2/foam fire systems) However, the big limitations of this system in ships, is that it uses unsalted water, so contrary to the fire lances that get their water directly from pumped sea water, Highfog systems are bound to run out of water in their systems at one point when used continuously. Edit : As someone asked about if human could breath under a working Highfog, the answer is yes. While the Highfog does choke the fire, it does not for humans, the reason being that a fire consume much more oxygen than us. In the air, there’s about 20% oxygen. If you put a human in a coffin, he could manage to survive for dozens of minutes if careful. A small fire would go through the reserves in a matter of minutes. So while the Highfog choke the fire, it still lets enough O2 go through the mist to allow people to breath, albeit uncomfortably.
It's also worth adding that Hi-Fog and other water mist systems are still very conservative on water usage -- it's a fraction when compared to the classic "shopping mall" sprinklers. To bring the numbers, I just found in the official report on the investigation of the fire on Star Princess: "During the fire on 23 March 2006, an estimated 168 water mist heads were activated, and were kept running for over 4 hours in order to cool the fire-affected areas. The water mist maintained a barrier against the fire at a system pressure of about 48 Bar, with 2 pump units running in automatic mode and the third manually controlled to boost pressure. The water mist system used about 300 tonnes of fresh water over 3 decks and 3 fire zones during the 4 hour operating period." BTW, if anyone wonders why the system cannot use salty water, the answer is simple: corrosion. This kind of fire suppression systems is called 'wet', because the water is constantly under stand-by pressure in the pipes, and starts flowing immediately after the heat-resistant bulb is broken. Then, if water pressure goes down, pumps start to kick in, bringing the system into operational high pressure mode. Having salty water there all the time would end the life of such a system rather quickly
@@tpwo to add another thing about salty water, the main issue is not corrosion. If I take exemple of my current place of work, I’m in a ferry boat that carry both cars and passenger. The garage decks are protected by Drencher systems, which are basically your average mall fire system, using salty water, while the passenger areas are under highfog protection, with clear water. While corrosion act differently between the Drencher system that is never under pressure, and activated by pumps, and the Highfog being under constant pressure (a few bars when static, and when activated, the pumps get the system to dozen of bars), the main issue is, because the Highfog create a mist, the mouth of the Highfog system are really, really small, and under really high pressure. If the water was salty, it could create a risk of the salt in dissolved in the water to reform as a solid and block the opening, thus rendering the Highfog system unusable. But, I have to had that those Drencher systems are also prone to corrosion and often are emptied from the salty water and cleaned/treated which some chemicals. The reason Highfog are not used in the garages is because the roof is pretty high (about 5 meters at least-15 feet) and the mist would become to thin to actually be usefull in such large volumes, so Drenchers are most effective.
@@tpwo Could the Hi-Fog system be rigged to allow salt water to be pumped in if necessary? It would require considerable flushing and refitting after use and would increase the risk of blockage, but is probably still better than running out of water in a very large or long fire, and it wouldn't be sitting in the system during regular standby
@@Septimus_ii most hi-fog units I have seen have a manual valve which can be opened to use sea water fed from the fire pumps. This is only used once the potable water supply has been used or if there is no suction from these tanks.
@@arnoldhau1 I lived in apartments in two states for most of 20 years and never lacked smoke detectors. In my most recent apartment, which was built about ten years ago, there was a sprinkler system.
@@arnoldhau1 At least in my state, all apartments have to have smoke detectors, regardless of age or size. It's sprinklers that are the "only newer buildings" issue (since it's hard to retrofit into an older building.)
I was expecting an account of a marine disaster, but that actually sounds like a textbook response to a fire, one that started under non-ideal circumstances as well
Amazingly, only one person died in this fire. Thirteen others needed to be treated for smoke inhalation. Really a testament to well-designed fire suppression systems and crew that's competent and decisive.
That didn’t work for the unfortunate students on the ferry Sewol in Korea, as recently as 2014. Everyone from the crew to the rescue services to the government were negligent and hundreds of lives were unnecessarily lost. Brick Immortar has made a heartbreaking documentary about it here on UA-cam.
I work as ship crew (non-passenger facing, meaning I don't directly deal with passengers, I'm one of the people hiding in the bridge :P) on a cruise ship. My adrenaline was going as you described this and I ticked off each box of "they did this right" as you went through it. The biggest thing that surprised me was the Deputy Captain remembering the master switches. I'm in charge of crew training on my ship (technically it's not in my job description, but I'm more effective at it than the person who's job it actually is. That may or may not be because of this channel...), and during every fire drill I have to remind someone to hit the switches.
So a crew member who isn't supposed to be in charge of training is running the training because the actual crew member is so incompetent at his job you can outperform him using short UA-cam videos as your learning resource... Please never let me sail on a ship with you
@@mattd6085 They aren't really incompetent. It's more of...they're *too* by the book. They have a list of standard trainings and they do them that way every single time. i.e. fire trainin drills are always inside a cabin, never a balcony or public space. We *always* use lifeboat 4 when practicing launching a lifeboat, never any other lifeboat. We only practice on wednesdays in the middle of the month. All of that is detailed in the training guide as example or base-line training, but he makes us do those every single time. That fire drill isn't effective if we have a fire like this one, or something happens on the pool deck. However, by watching these videos and knowing what to look out for, I have made more dynamically challenging training drills. Like a spreading fire that starts on the pool deck. Or launching all the lifeboats on one side of the ship. Dynamic drills, that change frequently and have lots of varying scenarios, are 1000x more effective in training people for *actual* events that could occur. For example, having watched the video about the Andrea Doria and the rescue efforts involved, I've actually made a plan to use the inflatable life rafts (as mentioned in the Lifeboats video) as a sort of drop off point, allowing those to be launched, then lifeboats to ferry passengers to those then come back, so should we end up in a similar incident, and are afforded enough time, there's some way to evac alone. So actually, by sailing with me, you are much safer than with a crew trained by my colleague.
@@katherynedarrah4245You used to launch only one lifeboat during boat drills? We launched all of them at least once a month. 😳 Anyway, it does sound like you're doing a very good thing. Keep it up!
Very nice video! This Hi-Fog system was designed by a Finnish company, Marioff. I worked for them some time ago, and I saw how water mist is created in their lab. Pumps required to create such high pressure are loud, big and powerful :D If you want to see the system in operation there are a lot of videos on yt -- you can look for 'hi fog', 'water mist' etc. I think that Marioff was one of the first on the market of high pressure water mist fire suppression systems, but there are a lot of competition these days. Anyway, it's great that such systems exist and can save people's lives.
Marine safety culture is still very impressive, identify a flaw oflr safety hazard and seek out methods of prevention, mitigation, containment and control.
Actually that's a thing for every developments, really. At least when they're done seriously and it might even be the basis of engineering. Problem X is identified and acknowledged, with or without disaster, then solutions are researched and applied against problem X, then repeat with new problems that arise.
I joined this ship immediately after the fire as it was being repaired in Bremerhaven. Until balcony sprinklers were installed additional crew were brought to the bridge for Fire Watch of the balconies including while in port. If you search UA-cam there are many videos of the fire and at the muster stations.
A big part of the reason I'm so interested in these sailing videos is because it seems like the entire sailing world watches and learns from incidences like these. They figure out what went wrong and then they figure out how to prevent it and implement it.
@@ibalrogindeed the idea is very simple and elegant, but actually producing a sprinkler with the nozzle geometry that will create a water mist with the correct droplet size requires really precise machinery. Also, operational pressures are really high, so you have to make a lot of design decisions with that in mind. So, a simple idea with a lot of R&D behind the actual product ;-)
After seeing so many disasters on the channel Plainly difficult, most of them happening because of negligence and greed induced malfunctions, it is really satisfying to see one that actually was contained, and dealed with correctly because of proper crew actions and proper equipment ! I know it's probably the wide majority, but things going bad are much more documented than things going right, so for once, I'm happy to see an unfortunate event actually ending right :)
Great video. Love your content. May I suggest not ending your videos abruptly? A lot of people watch UA-cam in their TVs and it's not easy to like a video after it ends. Having an end of video message like "thanks for watching, please like, subscribe, etc etc" followed by a few seconds of staring at an end credits screen would give people more time to like and subscribe. Sometimes we're so enthralled with the video we don't think to like it until it's over.
Seconded. I didn't know that about UA-cam on TVs, but videos just seem a lot more professional when there's a bit of an outro. It doesn't have to be a pitch for likes and subs; it can just be "I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching." If you want a laugh, go watch the last few seconds of a video from the channel "Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't."
I suspect it may be deliberate with those temperatures. I only say this because I would be seriously tempted to turn sprinklers on in that kind of heat, I don't think poorly of QE's welders.
This video is brilliant! I can't believe how many various SOLAS regulations you squeezed into this short video. Excellent case study. Please keep making videos.
That is good to see because wife and I now only use mini-suite balconies as we cruise. We cruise 3 times a year as retirees. Thank goodness for the fire suppression systems.
I am glad to know the chocolate was OK. Jokes aside, its good to know that the measures taken by the captain and crew could avoid a catastrophy. These were not professional fire fighters but sailors and service crew who had undergone mandatory firefighting training. It takes a lot of courage and dedication to put on breathing apparatus and go searching for survivors in zero visibility, potentially risking your own life. These crew members are heroes and should be recognized as such.
Dope Captain that turned the ship and lowered speed to reduce smoke and spreading and also helping crew getting closer to the fire and inspect cabins. Such a calm head in a crazy situation!
I first saw this event on Emma Cruises's channel. I had cruised on Princess a few times since 2006 and noticed the changes in their Muster Drills about balcony fires but never quite picked up on why until I watched these videos about it! Thanks for explaining about the hi-fog, and also the drencher systems -- the latter are quite noticeable on the balconies and I am glad they will be useful in the event of fire.
Old episodes, new episodes; I am neither in the maritime industry nor do I take cruises. Yet I find each of your episodes interesting and learn something in every one - - so I just click on another.
Me: Completely uninterested in going on a cruise ship, would never ever be pursuaded to set foot on 1. Also me: Being overwhelmed by my curious nature and watching the video anyway..... thats just how good ur videos are!
The emergency apparatus that kicks in once a fire/danger is detected is truly fascinating and I'll never get bored of you explaining it in detail! Enjoyable video as always, learned a lot :)
It's nice to hear of a captain and crew that seem to have performed their duties well 👍 a lot of these types of events in the last few decades have seen the captain and crew be the first ones to jump ship.
my old man was at sea (1941-1955) and he always said the thing that terrified him the most was the training they'd put them through for fires on board. Like the way they train firefighters they'd have a mock up of a ships hull abase, full of smoke, water and you thought you'd never get out alive. But it worked real well when emergencies happened.
I will never forget the fire on a ship I was on. It happened DURING a safety drill as well. Can remember saying "errr that's not normal" to my new cabin mate.
As a staff captain onboard many different Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise ships I can tell you that we have MANY different procedures to account for fires and also water leakages. As you have probably seen before on the Oasis Class ships we have a system which creates a misty fog that doesn’t damage anything but gets rid of the fire, this is used in all indoor areas and it means we can get rid of the fire pretty quickly. On the balconies we have a sprinkler above that creates a rain effect, which also muffles the fire to get rid of it.
Loved it. I'd definitely go for motr on at-sea firefighting, equipment, and emergency response. Also, Im imagining the cleanup and aftermath which must've been brutal.
No injuries, no deaths, dealt with properly despite not having had the training for it, professional management and deployment of staff, early evac warnings. I hope this crew where recognised for the work they did under the pressure of this situation!
Sadly there was one death and 11 injuries. But I do agree that it sounds like the crew performed admirably and basically everything worked as it should.
Your videos always end so abruptly with a cut to ad that makes me think there’s more to come after the ad. You should end with a 5-10 second title card with thanks or other notices. Excellent content btw. I love seeing another video from you each time.
This one is interesting to me because I have sailed on Star Princess three times (two before the fire and one after.). It took several months to repair the damage, but when I sailed after the fire I couldn't tell anything besides the replaced carpets (and that gets done regularly anyway.). I've always been impressed with the professionalism of the crews on the Princess ships I've been on, so I would expect them to handle this situation well. Another factor that helps to prevent these types of incidents is the fact that smoking on balconies is no longer allowed, although I don't think that is directly related to this.
What does this mean for other ships? Did they head to port for refit or were there just more basic changes? Heads up for the crew and passengers for there actions in dealing with the situation.
So weird seeing all these fire on boats videos coming up right now. We had a fire on our ferry last week and I thought to myself, “well these are not really that common, won’t see/hear much more about it soon enough.” But this video and the video of the pontoon/house boat is going around and also a ferry on the opposite coast of Canada slammed into the dock. Seems like boats/ships aren’t having that good of a year so far
This was an excellent video, I'd love to hear more about firefighting at sea as well as some the specifics such as the automatic fire suppression and zone cooling.
The balconies allowing the fire to cross fire zones unimpeded reminds me if a strip mall that burned down. Ues the mall had fire rated walls between stores but: a new facade had been built that did not extend the fire rated barriers into it. So the fire merrily (to anthropomorphize) burned within the facade, around the end of the fire walls and into the stores one-by-one.
This was quite interesting. Considering I've recently designed cruise ships (less than 200 m) without sprinklers on balconies due to limited class requirements, it makes me wonder why it takes so long for authorities to react. SRtP requirements weren't in place yet for this vessel, but despite being the most recent overhaul to cruise ship requirements it clearly lacks several requirements for outside areas. As a designer theres always a struggle to convince owners to go beyond the requirements to improve safety. All additional costs leads to higher ticket prices and reduced competetivness, so the only way to improve is either through class requirements, progressive owners or some kind of safety index (similar to emission and efficiency index). One day I guess 😊
Interesting, I would recommend maximal panic, arming yourself with the deadliest weapons possible, galvanizing a group of the strongest men, seizing the lifeboats, accept only the hottest women, breed and continue your lineages for another day at sea.
Mad respect to the crew of the ship and it's Captains. Following textbook fire response saved a lot of lives and financial loss. Shame on whoever tossed the cig.
I've heard this story before, but not with the technical breakdown. It's always nice to hear a _successful_ story dealing with a boat fire. Even a lot of yachts don't have the size to keep the ship alive after a fire hits.
When the passengers were released from their muster stations, breakfast was ready in the buffet. Passengers in unaffected cabins were allowed to return, but people in burnt cabins were not. They were put up in hotels in the port. Everyone on the ship received a full refund plus a voucher for 25% of their cruse value to use on a future cruise. Everyone was flown home at the cruise lines expense. The ship had some minor repairs onsite before sailing to Germany for a refit.
Emma Cruises made a video about this topic because she kept getting comments with complains that there's a no smoking policy on most cruises now as a prevention.
The crew did a superb job with that. So many times we see and hear about what went wrong leading to loss of life. In this case the crew did a great job and dealt with the situation.
Really good explanation of what happened on the star princess.... Also should of mentioned this led to banning of smoking on balconies for most ships. Thankfully, although it still happens occasionally. Going on Iona in a few weeks would like to know how the balconies on the promenade deck are protected as they have a full promenade in front of them?
i was onboard as a crew member.....crew alert and passenger alert were within seconds of each other. the captain did a brilliant job of keeping every one informed through out the ordeal. crew did a brilliant job of doing their duty during the emergency.
"What Would You Do?" In this scenario, assuming the fire was already blazing? Well, first make sure the balcony door of my cabin is closed properly. Then leave the cabin, with door closed to give way to FiFi teams and probably head directly to the appointed muster station to wait for further instructions. @Casual Navigation: excellent video once more!
Three cheers for the crew, doing everything in their power and keeping the passengers safe! I know it should be a given, but I've heard of way too many cruise ship disasters where crewmembers abandoned the passengers to die. On a side note, hot dayum, that Hi-Fog system took one look at the fire giving it the finger and raised a double in return.
A passenger did die of smoke inhalation, and 13 more were injured. It is still impressive given the scale of the problem, but I did want to note someone died.
Thanks for the video. This fire was well managed and responded. In other cases, and I'm thinking of the sinking en-route of the Achille Lauro in 1994; one engine crankcase exploded and the fire from the oil was unsupervised, so it spread to the entire ship which, two days after, sank in front of the Somali coast. True, the ship was badly maintained. Regards, Anthony
Great video. Im feel more safe now traveling on ships. I dont like to travel on ships, but i do it each summer because i need to have a vacation in europe. Hope u can make a video of "Scandinavian Star" where all goes wrong about fire on ship. 159 lives lost in 1990.
Wouldn't have thought of purpose listing to avoid firefighting water from flooding. And moving the ship to change wind. Nice to see they seemed very well trained.
i was working onboard Emerald princess few years ago, and we had a fire also, dry storage on deck 0 was on fire for good 40 min. Crew alert was called and everyone did they thing, alarm was sounded around 8pm, strangely was not feeling scared and ur brain just go into reaction mode, but in general cruise ships have a very good safety regarding fire .
Strange I was cruising on the Emerald princess on the way from South Hampton when a engine caught fire. It was put out in about 40min. The captain said it was something to do with oil spilling on the engine. We continued the journey on three engines. Strange it was the same ship
It's nice to see incidences were the emergency was properly dealt with and safety measures were correctly implemented and working even though this was a fire they weren't designed for. We often only hear of the incidences were everything went wrong and people died, but we don't see the ones were things went right.
agreed at first i thought it was going to be the same old story
Excellent point, I too would love to see more anti-horror stories like this, where it focuses on how modern systems have saved the day, rather than lessons being learnt the hard way
@@FPVsean things go wrong all the time on cruise ships, we never hear this because the crews do such a good job
@@FPVsean have a look at the air traffic control channels here on UA-cam. The videos are virtually all about emergency or near emergency situations that are managed and dealt with.
Some people have never watched the Futurama episode where Bender meets God and it shows.
usually with stories like this there is some egregious error on the part of staff or command in response to the disaster but in this case everyone did exactly what they were supposed to which is great to see
Just the person who either left their cigarette unattended outside, or worse threw it off a balcony thinking: "It's fiiiiine! It'll just go in the water", not only polluting but also ignoring the fact that the wind and draft could well bring it back onto the boat.
And illustrates even when doing everything correctly things can go very bad. (Even though in this case it was all fine it probully didn't look like it at some points)
@@arthanor9631 Typical smoker behaviour. I despise them. Too weak to quit, too weak to properly care for others, throwing away their trash everywhere. We just had a fire in the backyard of our company. Why? Because smokers hadn't properly extinguished their cigarette butt.
@@arthanor9631 so true that person is the sole dumbass in this situation
@Arthanor
These kinds of incidents always reminds me of why I quit smoking when I was in my early 20's.
It's not only bad for your overall health, but it also, will destroy others lives and properties indirectly, if you don't do it properly with care.
Its more than usually comes down to our own errors and neglected behavior, be that good or bad.
It's something we all must learn from not to repeat, even if we make a habit of out, in my eyes.
I don't know why but I always find it *extremely* satisfying to hear about emergency response scenarios where contingencies and backups are activated and a concrete and decisive plan is executed and powerful, effective steps are taken that actually work as designed
As someone who helps design them, it’s even more satisfying to hear when these systems do their job and save lives.
I agree, it's always wonderful to hear that the crew response was so orderly and immediate. Great crew training and great overall teamwork. Even in a case where some saftey systems failed, leading to a rapid and large fire growth, it was beaten with precision and planning. Captain and firecrews did their jobs perfectly.
Examples are few and far between.
Good captain and crew is all the difference
Super satisfying.
The crew deserves a lot of credit here for handling the situation in a calm and professional manner, too often tales like this end badly because the correct procedures aren’t followed or done so badly!
This is my chief worry on a ship. The bulk of the crew is notoriously underpaid workers from 3rd world countries with high turnover rate.They could have just thrown in the towel and quit. Kudos to them for being professional.
For those wanting to know more about Highfog, it’s a pretty specific way of stopping a fire on a boat. It’s and extremely high pressure system, at around 100 to even 200 bars, which pulverize the water droplets into a thick mist. This, in a way, does 2 jobs at one time :
Cooling the air and surfaces down, just like regular water fire systems
Stifle the fire thanks to the mist blocking the oxygen access and trapping CO2 (just like CO2/foam fire systems)
However, the big limitations of this system in ships, is that it uses unsalted water, so contrary to the fire lances that get their water directly from pumped sea water, Highfog systems are bound to run out of water in their systems at one point when used continuously.
Edit : As someone asked about if human could breath under a working Highfog, the answer is yes. While the Highfog does choke the fire, it does not for humans, the reason being that a fire consume much more oxygen than us. In the air, there’s about 20% oxygen. If you put a human in a coffin, he could manage to survive for dozens of minutes if careful. A small fire would go through the reserves in a matter of minutes.
So while the Highfog choke the fire, it still lets enough O2 go through the mist to allow people to breath, albeit uncomfortably.
It's also worth adding that Hi-Fog and other water mist systems are still very conservative on water usage -- it's a fraction when compared to the classic "shopping mall" sprinklers.
To bring the numbers, I just found in the official report on the investigation of the fire on Star Princess:
"During the fire on 23 March 2006, an estimated 168 water mist heads were activated, and were kept running for over 4 hours in order to cool the fire-affected areas. The water mist maintained a barrier against the fire at a system pressure of about 48 Bar, with 2 pump units running in automatic mode and the third manually controlled to boost pressure. The water mist system used about 300 tonnes of fresh water over 3 decks and 3 fire zones during the 4 hour operating period."
BTW, if anyone wonders why the system cannot use salty water, the answer is simple: corrosion. This kind of fire suppression systems is called 'wet', because the water is constantly under stand-by pressure in the pipes, and starts flowing immediately after the heat-resistant bulb is broken. Then, if water pressure goes down, pumps start to kick in, bringing the system into operational high pressure mode. Having salty water there all the time would end the life of such a system rather quickly
@@tpwo to add another thing about salty water, the main issue is not corrosion.
If I take exemple of my current place of work, I’m in a ferry boat that carry both cars and passenger. The garage decks are protected by Drencher systems, which are basically your average mall fire system, using salty water, while the passenger areas are under highfog protection, with clear water. While corrosion act differently between the Drencher system that is never under pressure, and activated by pumps, and the Highfog being under constant pressure (a few bars when static, and when activated, the pumps get the system to dozen of bars), the main issue is, because the Highfog create a mist, the mouth of the Highfog system are really, really small, and under really high pressure. If the water was salty, it could create a risk of the salt in dissolved in the water to reform as a solid and block the opening, thus rendering the Highfog system unusable.
But, I have to had that those Drencher systems are also prone to corrosion and often are emptied from the salty water and cleaned/treated which some chemicals.
The reason Highfog are not used in the garages is because the roof is pretty high (about 5 meters at least-15 feet) and the mist would become to thin to actually be usefull in such large volumes, so Drenchers are most effective.
@@tpwo Could the Hi-Fog system be rigged to allow salt water to be pumped in if necessary? It would require considerable flushing and refitting after use and would increase the risk of blockage, but is probably still better than running out of water in a very large or long fire, and it wouldn't be sitting in the system during regular standby
might be a silly question but does that much water, pressurized and misted causing breathing issues for anyone in the area?
@@Septimus_ii most hi-fog units I have seen have a manual valve which can be opened to use sea water fed from the fire pumps. This is only used once the potable water supply has been used or if there is no suction from these tanks.
Balcony fires can be a major issue in apartment buildings as well because most fire suppression systems do not cover balcony areas.
In Appartements there are no fire suppression systems anyway? Modern ones have smoke detectors... But older ones have nothing.
@@arnoldhau1 I lived in apartments in two states for most of 20 years and never lacked smoke detectors. In my most recent apartment, which was built about ten years ago, there was a sprinkler system.
At least firefighters on the outside have a good chance of being able to put it out from the outside!
@@arnoldhau1 It depends on when the apartment was built.
@@arnoldhau1 At least in my state, all apartments have to have smoke detectors, regardless of age or size. It's sprinklers that are the "only newer buildings" issue (since it's hard to retrofit into an older building.)
I was expecting an account of a marine disaster, but that actually sounds like a textbook response to a fire, one that started under non-ideal circumstances as well
I'm very curious to know what an "ideal marine disaster" looks like.
@@generalcatkaa5864 One that starts in port I guess.
Amazingly, only one person died in this fire. Thirteen others needed to be treated for smoke inhalation. Really a testament to well-designed fire suppression systems and crew that's competent and decisive.
It’s good to know, really: cruise ship fires are depressingly common.
One died?? Why didn’t the video mention that? Crew or guest? How?
@@suzanne5971 it was a guest, and if I recall correctly it was an older guest who had a heart attack during the evacuation.
Please follow the instructions of the Crew if you are on a big and modern ship. Panic is a big of a risk as the fire
unless they're telling you "everything's fine stay in your room" while your room is 90 degrees on its side
That didn’t work for the unfortunate students on the ferry Sewol in Korea, as recently as 2014. Everyone from the crew to the rescue services to the government were negligent and hundreds of lives were unnecessarily lost. Brick Immortar has made a heartbreaking documentary about it here on UA-cam.
Placing the wind of the starburt bow and applying the list we’re absolutely top notch captaining
I work as ship crew (non-passenger facing, meaning I don't directly deal with passengers, I'm one of the people hiding in the bridge :P) on a cruise ship. My adrenaline was going as you described this and I ticked off each box of "they did this right" as you went through it.
The biggest thing that surprised me was the Deputy Captain remembering the master switches. I'm in charge of crew training on my ship (technically it's not in my job description, but I'm more effective at it than the person who's job it actually is. That may or may not be because of this channel...), and during every fire drill I have to remind someone to hit the switches.
So a crew member who isn't supposed to be in charge of training is running the training because the actual crew member is so incompetent at his job you can outperform him using short UA-cam videos as your learning resource...
Please never let me sail on a ship with you
@@mattd6085 They aren't really incompetent. It's more of...they're *too* by the book. They have a list of standard trainings and they do them that way every single time. i.e. fire trainin drills are always inside a cabin, never a balcony or public space. We *always* use lifeboat 4 when practicing launching a lifeboat, never any other lifeboat. We only practice on wednesdays in the middle of the month. All of that is detailed in the training guide as example or base-line training, but he makes us do those every single time. That fire drill isn't effective if we have a fire like this one, or something happens on the pool deck.
However, by watching these videos and knowing what to look out for, I have made more dynamically challenging training drills. Like a spreading fire that starts on the pool deck. Or launching all the lifeboats on one side of the ship. Dynamic drills, that change frequently and have lots of varying scenarios, are 1000x more effective in training people for *actual* events that could occur.
For example, having watched the video about the Andrea Doria and the rescue efforts involved, I've actually made a plan to use the inflatable life rafts (as mentioned in the Lifeboats video) as a sort of drop off point, allowing those to be launched, then lifeboats to ferry passengers to those then come back, so should we end up in a similar incident, and are afforded enough time, there's some way to evac alone.
So actually, by sailing with me, you are much safer than with a crew trained by my colleague.
@@katherynedarrah4245You used to launch only one lifeboat during boat drills? We launched all of them at least once a month. 😳
Anyway, it does sound like you're doing a very good thing. Keep it up!
Very nice video! This Hi-Fog system was designed by a Finnish company, Marioff. I worked for them some time ago, and I saw how water mist is created in their lab. Pumps required to create such high pressure are loud, big and powerful :D If you want to see the system in operation there are a lot of videos on yt -- you can look for 'hi fog', 'water mist' etc.
I think that Marioff was one of the first on the market of high pressure water mist fire suppression systems, but there are a lot of competition these days. Anyway, it's great that such systems exist and can save people's lives.
oho, kogo ja widzę :D
@@LexanderStudio o, siemano Alex! Internet jest mniejszy niż nam się zdaje :D
Marine safety culture is still very impressive, identify a flaw oflr safety hazard and seek out methods of prevention, mitigation, containment and control.
Actually that's a thing for every developments, really. At least when they're done seriously and it might even be the basis of engineering.
Problem X is identified and acknowledged, with or without disaster, then solutions are researched and applied against problem X, then repeat with new problems that arise.
I joined this ship immediately after the fire as it was being repaired in Bremerhaven. Until balcony sprinklers were installed additional crew were brought to the bridge for Fire Watch of the balconies including while in port. If you search UA-cam there are many videos of the fire and at the muster stations.
A big part of the reason I'm so interested in these sailing videos is because it seems like the entire sailing world watches and learns from incidences like these. They figure out what went wrong and then they figure out how to prevent it and implement it.
That hi-mist system is amazing.
I love how staggeringly low tech it is. Very elegant.
@@ibalrogindeed the idea is very simple and elegant, but actually producing a sprinkler with the nozzle geometry that will create a water mist with the correct droplet size requires really precise machinery.
Also, operational pressures are really high, so you have to make a lot of design decisions with that in mind. So, a simple idea with a lot of R&D behind the actual product ;-)
@@ibalrog less things to go wrong. That's better
After seeing so many disasters on the channel Plainly difficult, most of them happening because of negligence and greed induced malfunctions, it is really satisfying to see one that actually was contained, and dealed with correctly because of proper crew actions and proper equipment !
I know it's probably the wide majority, but things going bad are much more documented than things going right, so for once, I'm happy to see an unfortunate event actually ending right :)
Great video. Love your content. May I suggest not ending your videos abruptly? A lot of people watch UA-cam in their TVs and it's not easy to like a video after it ends. Having an end of video message like "thanks for watching, please like, subscribe, etc etc" followed by a few seconds of staring at an end credits screen would give people more time to like and subscribe. Sometimes we're so enthralled with the video we don't think to like it until it's over.
Seconded. I didn't know that about UA-cam on TVs, but videos just seem a lot more professional when there's a bit of an outro. It doesn't have to be a pitch for likes and subs; it can just be "I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching."
If you want a laugh, go watch the last few seconds of a video from the channel "Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't."
I remember the welders setting the high fogs off constantly in the engine room on the QE. It was welcomed though when it was over 50c heat
I suspect it may be deliberate with those temperatures.
I only say this because I would be seriously tempted to turn sprinklers on in that kind of heat, I don't think poorly of QE's welders.
I remember switching the Hi-Fog to Manual in areas during hot work...
This video is brilliant! I can't believe how many various SOLAS regulations you squeezed into this short video. Excellent case study. Please keep making videos.
Your ability to illustrate and explain these things is incredible!
Well done on the safety systems, Captain and crew responses! They saved lives!
That is good to see because wife and I now only use mini-suite balconies as we cruise. We cruise 3 times a year as retirees. Thank goodness for the fire suppression systems.
I am glad to know the chocolate was OK.
Jokes aside, its good to know that the measures taken by the captain and crew could avoid a catastrophy. These were not professional fire fighters but sailors and service crew who had undergone mandatory firefighting training. It takes a lot of courage and dedication to put on breathing apparatus and go searching for survivors in zero visibility, potentially risking your own life.
These crew members are heroes and should be recognized as such.
Dope Captain that turned the ship and lowered speed to reduce smoke and spreading and also helping crew getting closer to the fire and inspect cabins. Such a calm head in a crazy situation!
I first saw this event on Emma Cruises's channel. I had cruised on Princess a few times since 2006 and noticed the changes in their Muster Drills about balcony fires but never quite picked up on why until I watched these videos about it! Thanks for explaining about the hi-fog, and also the drencher systems -- the latter are quite noticeable on the balconies and I am glad they will be useful in the event of fire.
Old episodes, new episodes; I am neither in the maritime industry nor do I take cruises. Yet I find each of your episodes interesting and learn something in every one - - so I just click on another.
I love this channel, it makes me never want to get on a big ship.
Props to the crew for a very excellent emergency response.
Me: Completely uninterested in going on a cruise ship, would never ever be pursuaded to set foot on 1.
Also me: Being overwhelmed by my curious nature and watching the video anyway..... thats just how good ur videos are!
Why wouldn't you go on one?
@@ano_nym maybe just a general fear of being on the open water, thats the case with most people 🤷♂️
@@momoy9159 Or the exorbitant price which most of us can't afford.
this is amazing keep up the good work
The emergency apparatus that kicks in once a fire/danger is detected is truly fascinating and I'll never get bored of you explaining it in detail! Enjoyable video as always, learned a lot :)
It's nice to hear of a captain and crew that seem to have performed their duties well 👍 a lot of these types of events in the last few decades have seen the captain and crew be the first ones to jump ship.
my old man was at sea (1941-1955) and he always said the thing that terrified him the most was the training they'd put them through for fires on board. Like the way they train firefighters they'd have a mock up of a ships hull abase, full of smoke, water and you thought you'd never get out alive. But it worked real well when emergencies happened.
Yep. My Dad was on a U.S. Navy avgas tanker during WW2 and their fire training was intense.
I will never forget the fire on a ship I was on. It happened DURING a safety drill as well.
Can remember saying "errr that's not normal" to my new cabin mate.
I was on this sailing. My third cruise and I’ve now done over 45 cruises. Didn’t deter me in the slightest. The crew were amazing.
Bravo! Emergency drills are a fantastic preparation for this kind of scenarios. Professionalism and calmness always pay.
As a staff captain onboard many different Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise ships I can tell you that we have MANY different procedures to account for fires and also water leakages. As you have probably seen before on the Oasis Class ships we have a system which creates a misty fog that doesn’t damage anything but gets rid of the fire, this is used in all indoor areas and it means we can get rid of the fire pretty quickly. On the balconies we have a sprinkler above that creates a rain effect, which also muffles the fire to get rid of it.
What a crew they set an absolute example of competence in an emergency situation individually and as a team
What a terrifying scenario, but great to know that there’s clear processes in place for this sort of situation
Loved it. I'd definitely go for motr on at-sea firefighting, equipment, and emergency response. Also, Im imagining the cleanup and aftermath which must've been brutal.
Wow! Makes me wonder how many maritime disasters that changed safety laws didn't have to actually end in loss of life.
Very few. Most maritime laws are written in blood.
A passenger did die from smoke inhalation in this fire and 13 more were injured from the same cause.
None of them, but unfortunately people don't pay attention to a problem unless people die.
Great job to the crew and systems in keeping one of the biggest dangers of sea travel under control.
No injuries, no deaths, dealt with properly despite not having had the training for it, professional management and deployment of staff, early evac warnings. I hope this crew where recognised for the work they did under the pressure of this situation!
Sadly there was one death and 11 injuries. But I do agree that it sounds like the crew performed admirably and basically everything worked as it should.
@@jedimasterpickle3 oh I didn't notice that. Still that's remarkably low all things considered
@@trentr9762 Agreed. And I only knew this because I googled this right after watching the video.
These videos are so cool and give so much info and detail, keep it up!
Your videos always end so abruptly with a cut to ad that makes me think there’s more to come after the ad. You should end with a 5-10 second title card with thanks or other notices.
Excellent content btw. I love seeing another video from you each time.
Seems like it was professionally dealt with!
Thank you so much, as an aspiring deck cadet I learn so much from your channel
I was in the Navy. We were all trained in basic firefighting because you have to fight a fire on your ship. There simply is no other option.
Was in the navy and you are correct about that. Never forget the first day of training.
Damage control training for all hands was one advantage the U.S. Navy had over the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2.
Fantastic video! I'd love to know more about the boundary cooling. Thanks :)
that 'keep door closed' label at the end pushed through your powerful sprinklers!
This one is interesting to me because I have sailed on Star Princess three times (two before the fire and one after.). It took several months to repair the damage, but when I sailed after the fire I couldn't tell anything besides the replaced carpets (and that gets done regularly anyway.). I've always been impressed with the professionalism of the crews on the Princess ships I've been on, so I would expect them to handle this situation well.
Another factor that helps to prevent these types of incidents is the fact that smoking on balconies is no longer allowed, although I don't think that is directly related to this.
What an abrupt end of video ! But thanks for the amazing work !
Fascinating video as always! Love learning in bite sized chunks like this
What does this mean for other ships? Did they head to port for refit or were there just more basic changes?
Heads up for the crew and passengers for there actions in dealing with the situation.
Ok. This is cool. This is boiled down, siphoned and distilled, cool. Amazing content!
So weird seeing all these fire on boats videos coming up right now. We had a fire on our ferry last week and I thought to myself, “well these are not really that common, won’t see/hear much more about it soon enough.” But this video and the video of the pontoon/house boat is going around and also a ferry on the opposite coast of Canada slammed into the dock. Seems like boats/ships aren’t having that good of a year so far
Always a pleasure to learn from your videos! Great work!
Seems like the Captain and crew did everything right on this one. Good on them!
This was an excellent video, I'd love to hear more about firefighting at sea as well as some the specifics such as the automatic fire suppression and zone cooling.
High school classmate of mine was on that cruise with his wife. Quite the experience.
The balconies allowing the fire to cross fire zones unimpeded reminds me if a strip mall that burned down. Ues the mall had fire rated walls between stores but: a new facade had been built that did not extend the fire rated barriers into it. So the fire merrily (to anthropomorphize) burned within the facade, around the end of the fire walls and into the stores one-by-one.
Ah yeah, our monthly ship content boys 😎😎
This was quite interesting. Considering I've recently designed cruise ships (less than 200 m) without sprinklers on balconies due to limited class requirements, it makes me wonder why it takes so long for authorities to react. SRtP requirements weren't in place yet for this vessel, but despite being the most recent overhaul to cruise ship requirements it clearly lacks several requirements for outside areas. As a designer theres always a struggle to convince owners to go beyond the requirements to improve safety. All additional costs leads to higher ticket prices and reduced competetivness, so the only way to improve is either through class requirements, progressive owners or some kind of safety index (similar to emission and efficiency index). One day I guess 😊
I love these stories of a good response to emergencies.
Interesting, I would recommend maximal panic, arming yourself with the deadliest weapons possible, galvanizing a group of the strongest men, seizing the lifeboats, accept only the hottest women, breed and continue your lineages for another day at sea.
Are you confusing zombie apocalypses and shipboard fires? Just checking.
@@beeble2003 Either. There are no tragedies, only opportunities!
Mad respect to the crew of the ship and it's Captains. Following textbook fire response saved a lot of lives and financial loss. Shame on whoever tossed the cig.
Ideas for ships you can make videos about
- Edmund Fitzgerald
- Oceanos
- Mont Blanc
- Sultana
- RMS Republic
- MV Dona Paz
- Wilhelm Gustloff
being in a fire surrounded by water
cruel irony
Your videos are always interesting! Thanks for your hard work :)
I've heard this story before, but not with the technical breakdown. It's always nice to hear a _successful_ story dealing with a boat fire. Even a lot of yachts don't have the size to keep the ship alive after a fire hits.
I'm glad the crew handled it well
When the passengers were released from their muster stations, breakfast was ready in the buffet.
Passengers in unaffected cabins were allowed to return, but people in burnt cabins were not. They were put up in hotels in the port.
Everyone on the ship received a full refund plus a voucher for 25% of their cruse value to use on a future cruise. Everyone was flown home at the cruise lines expense.
The ship had some minor repairs onsite before sailing to Germany for a refit.
Very interesting video, thank you.
Emma Cruises made a video about this topic because she kept getting comments with complains that there's a no smoking policy on most cruises now as a prevention.
Your videos are amazing man, can't wait to see you in the captain's chair!
A Navy person told me when a ship goes down only 50 % of the life boats are of any use .
Damn, that lil fire dude just yeeted his way around that fire break
The crew did a superb job with that. So many times we see and hear about what went wrong leading to loss of life. In this case the crew did a great job and dealt with the situation.
Really good explanation of what happened on the star princess.... Also should of mentioned this led to banning of smoking on balconies for most ships. Thankfully, although it still happens occasionally. Going on Iona in a few weeks would like to know how the balconies on the promenade deck are protected as they have a full promenade in front of them?
i was onboard as a crew member.....crew alert and passenger alert were within seconds of each other. the captain did a brilliant job of keeping every one informed through out the ordeal. crew did a brilliant job of doing their duty during the emergency.
WOW what a team!! I hope they all got pay rises after that. Amazing work Crew!
What a crazy situation but they kicked the fires butt great job that crew
"What Would You Do?" In this scenario, assuming the fire was already blazing? Well, first make sure the balcony door of my cabin is closed properly. Then leave the cabin, with door closed to give way to FiFi teams and probably head directly to the appointed muster station to wait for further instructions.
@Casual Navigation: excellent video once more!
It is nice to hear a story where everything goes as planned in an emergency. The coordination was satisfying.
Wow that was exciting to watch!
Props to the designers of these fog systems.
Pretty cool to see an orchestra of things working out right
Great video 👍
Three cheers for the crew, doing everything in their power and keeping the passengers safe! I know it should be a given, but I've heard of way too many cruise ship disasters where crewmembers abandoned the passengers to die.
On a side note, hot dayum, that Hi-Fog system took one look at the fire giving it the finger and raised a double in return.
Usually the stories you tell here don't have a happy ending. I'm glad everyone (including the ship) survived this time!
A passenger did die of smoke inhalation, and 13 more were injured. It is still impressive given the scale of the problem, but I did want to note someone died.
ah :(
Thanks for the video.
This fire was well managed and responded.
In other cases, and I'm thinking of the sinking en-route of the Achille Lauro in 1994; one engine crankcase exploded and the fire from the oil was unsupervised, so it spread to the entire ship which, two days after, sank in front of the Somali coast.
True, the ship was badly maintained.
Regards,
Anthony
I was on this boat on that night. I was 16 and can remember everything. We were so close Two abandoned ship
Great video. Im feel more safe now traveling on ships. I dont like to travel on ships, but i do it each summer because i need to have a vacation in europe. Hope u can make a video of "Scandinavian Star" where all goes wrong about fire on ship. 159 lives lost in 1990.
Wouldn't have thought of purpose listing to avoid firefighting water from flooding. And moving the ship to change wind. Nice to see they seemed very well trained.
i was working onboard Emerald princess few years ago, and we had a fire also, dry storage on deck 0 was on fire for good 40 min.
Crew alert was called and everyone did they thing, alarm was sounded around 8pm, strangely was not feeling scared and ur brain just go into reaction mode, but in general cruise ships have a very good safety regarding fire .
Strange I was cruising on the Emerald princess on the way from South Hampton when a engine caught fire. It was put out in about 40min. The captain said it was something to do with oil spilling on the engine. We continued the journey on three engines. Strange it was the same ship
the true question is who was the person who dropped the cigarette on a towel and started the whole thing
This reminds me of an episode on disasters at sea. Great documentary if you haven't seen it.
oh I remember that one too
Great management of the situation
Incredible response by crew. A textbook case of emergency management. GG.