Fires break out on two cruise ships from Costa and Carnival in shipyard

Both Costa Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line were struck by fires aboard one of their ships last week during shipyard work.

The first was aboard Costa Smeralda, which reportedly caught fire on March 18^th during welding work. The second was aboard Carnival Triumph on March 22^nd, also reportedly during welding.

While Costa Smeralda is a brand new ship in the final stages of construction, Carnival Triumph is a long-standing member of the Carnival fleet, and is undergoing a major refurbishment project.

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The fire broke out aboard Costa Smeralda on Deck 15 in the Meyer Turku wetdock.

“There was stored equipment on fire, started by welding inside the ship,” the shipyard said in a statement. “The shipyard’s fire brigade was the first ones on the site and started firefighting measures. Local fire brigades arrived shortly after.”

Costa Smeralda was evacuated of all shipyard workers and contracts, but they were allowed to board once more about an hour-and-a-half later. Ten shipyard workers were treated for smoke inhalation, while a further two suffered “minor injuries”.

“Material damages were minor and there is no effect to the building schedule of the ship,” the shipyard added.

Costa Smeralda was moved from her newbuild drydock to a wetdock for final fitting out just prior to the fire incident. Although the fire did no real damage, it could have been much worse for the brand new cruise ship.

Back in 2002, Diamond Princess suffered significant damage during her construction due to a fire, while the most recent incident, a fire aboard AIDAprima during her construction, was also relatively small and didn’t cause major damage.

Costa Smeralda will enter service in October, 2019, one of several new LNG-powered cruise ships coming in the next few months.

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The fire aboard Carnival Triumph, meanwhile, was first reported by Mondo Navi forums and reportedly started on the starboard side of Deck 4 near the bow. A spark may have ignited the fire during some welding work onboard, it said.

The Navantia shipyard in Freeport, Bahamas put its firefighting teams into action as the ship was evacuated. The fire was quickly extinguished and it appears no major damage was done, although the shipyard has not confirmed this.

Carnival Triumph is currently undergoing a total transformation that will see her renamed Carnival Sunrise, among a number of other on-board changes and enhancements.

The ship is expected to be re-launched in Q2 and will sail her first cruise under the new name on April 29^th, 2019, a 7-night Eastern Caribbean roundtrip itinerary out of Norfolk. From 2020 onwards, she’ll offer shorter cruises in the Caribbean from New York.