Partying students saw fire, rushed to rescue
Published: March 26, 2006
For four days and nights, students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who went on a cruise last week did what most kids do on spring break: They partied, they danced, they stayed up all night.
So when the students began screaming and knocking on doors about 3 a.m. Thursday, annoyed passengers aboard the Star Princess just figured the spring breakers were up to their usual late-night antics.
But this time the fraternity brothers and sisters said they were coming to their rescue.
They said they were among the first to notice the thick plumes of smoke coming from the ship, which was en route to Montego Bay, Jamaica, with 2,600 passengers.
”It’s the Titanic,” Tammy Holloway began shouting to warn people about the fire on board — much to the chagrin of passengers on her floor.
”People started complaining to me that I had kept them awake enough the last two nights in a row,” said Holloway, one of 24 students from the Daytona Beach-based college. “I was hysterical.”
The students arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last night, stunned by their ordeal, but in good spirits.
The predawn blaze on the ship left one passenger dead and 11 injured. The fire broke out as the ship — which originated in Fort Lauderdale — sailed from Grand Cayman Island to Montego Bay.
To help speed up moving to the muster areas, which are designated areas for safety, the students helped push elderly people in wheelchairs down the hallway. Other students held open doors.
Graham Jones and two of his friends said they helped carry a woman in her wheelchair down six flights of stairs to safety.
The students said there weren’t enough fire personnel, so some of the fraternity members helped to locate fire hoses.
”We just thought it was kind of funny how almost the entire ship didn’t like our group because we would party all day and all night,” Jones said. “But if it weren’t for us being up so late, many, many more people would have suffered.”
Indeed the ladies of Alpha Xi Delta and the young men of Sigma Chi were quite the attention getters on the cruise ship full of retirees, teachers and anxious families.
As any respectable spring breaker would do, they danced at the ship’s disco, chatted in the hallways. In fact, some of them even missed the emergency drill because the hot tub on deck was more enticing.
”Next time, we won’t miss the drill,” 18-year-old Maria Olivas said. When Olivas was told to put on warm clothes and evacuate, she realized it was the real thing.
”We’re sinking and the water’s cold,” said Olivas, who is studying to be a meteorologist.
After returning from the muster areas, many of the rooms had furnishings such as televisions melt from the fire’s heat. Some rooms’ door locks had melted, and the staff had to kick the doors down to get inside, said Kyle Fanelli, 21, a junior.
Adding to the drama, lifeboats were lowered to deck level in preparation of a possible evacuation, which was later deemed unnecessary.
About 150 cabins were damaged. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Authorities from several countries, including the United States, sent investigators to the ship, now on its way to a shipyard in Freeport, Bahamas for repairs.
The fire began at about 3 a.m. Thursday on a private balcony on the 10th deck. It spread to three more decks and took nearly five hours to quell. Winds of up to 15 knots — coupled with the ship’s cruising speed of 20 knots — could explain why the fire spread so quickly and broadly, experts said.
Richard Liffridge, 72, of Georgia, died after suffering a heart attack, according to Princess Cruises, which is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp. The 11 injured were treated for smoke inhalation.
The ship set sail last Sunday on a weeklong cruise from Fort Lauderdale. A company spokesman said their investigation would continue through the weekend in hopes of providing more definitive information on Monday.
The probe will be led by the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch because the ship is registered in Bermuda.
About four of the group of 24 still remain on the ship.
After the fire, the college kids spoke about the ship in terms of the ”crispy side,” where the blaze happened.
The students said that they didn’t find out they were coming back Saturday until two hours before their flight. They arrived on a chartered plane.
To smooth things over for passengers, Star Princess refunded them their money and gave the travelers a discount off their next cruise.
So would they go back on the cruise trip?
”Hell yeah,” Fanelli said. “We get a 25 percent discount.”
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