Deadly Fire on Norwegian Cruise Ship—Forces Passengers to Evacuate

September 15, 2011 - According to reports a fire turned deadly aboard a Norwegian cruise ship carrying two hundred passengers.

According to the Sunnmore Police District, the Norwegian cruise ship MS Nordyls had a fire that caused the evacuation of passengers and is responsible for the deaths of two crew members in the ships engine room.

The MS Nordlys, one of Norways Hurtigruten ships was in the vicinity of Alesund in western Norway approximately 230 miles from Oslo, Norway’s capital. According to authorities the fire broke out and evacuation of 106 passengers onto lifeboats began at approximately 9:00 a.m. Thursday. There were 55 crew members and the remaining passengers out of the 207 the ship was carrying that exited the ship after it docked in Aaesund. There were some crew members that remained on the ship to fight the fire.

According to police nine people from the cruise ship were admitted to the Aalesund Hospital, with two having serious burns and smoke injuries. The injured, according to the police were all crew members of the cruise ship. According to Sunnmoere acting Police Chief Yngve Skovly, police suspect that there was a cruise ship explosion in the machine room on the cruise ship. Skovly stated that the police do not suspect sabotage and said the evacuation was orderly on the ship that had left from the city of Bergen and was traveling north.

According to Thorsen the two units of firefighters specialize in offshore fires that battled the cruise ship blaze. The MS Nordlys normal route is off the western coast and is a 1,500 mile cruise between Bergen and the northern town of Kirkenes, which is above the Arctic Circle and near the Russian border.

Aalesund’s fire brigade chief Geir Thorsen stated the fire was large and powerful, but firefighters got the blaze under control, after six hours. The ship began taking on water and was listing at approximately 10 degrees, which he says will now be a challenge to stabilize the ship.