Costa Cruises’ LNG-powered liner catches fire at shipyard

A fire hit one of the decks of the recently floated LNG-powered Costa Smeralda cruise ship under construction in Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland.

Meyer Turku said on Monday that a fire broke out on deck 15 which was started by welding inside the ship.

According to the company, stored equipment caught fire at 16:45 Finnish local time. The first responders were members of the shipyard’s fire brigade with local firefighters arriving at the site shortly after.

Meyer Turku added that the ship was evacuated and work on the vessel continued at approximately 18:15.

Some ten people have slightly inhaled smoke, and two people had their slight injuries checked.

The vessel under construction suffered minor material damages which, Meyer Turku said, would not affect the building schedule of the ship.

The Costa Smeralda was floated last week which marked the start outfitting phase of construction of the Costa Cruises’ vessel. The cruise ship will be ready for delivery in October 2019.

The vessel will be the first LNG-powered cruise ship in the Costa fleet and one of the first ones to sail the seas.

Costa Cruises also expects the delivery of a second vessel, the sister ship of Costa Smeralda, also built by Meyer-Turku, in 2021.

The christening ceremony for the vessel will be held in Savona on November 3, 2019. The six-day inaugural cruise will depart from Savona on November 4, 2019, and sail to Barcelona, Marseilles, and Civitavecchia (Rome).

Costa Smeralda will then continue to sail around the Western Mediterranean until April 2020.