Grand Princess’ Engine Room Catches Fire

Due to a fire which broke out in the engine room aboard the cruise ship Grand Princess, the vessel lost power for a short period of time in the early hours on Monday, according to CBS San Francisco.

“At approximately 5:30 am local time, a propulsion circuit breaker in the aft electrical switchboard aboard Grand Princess suffered a significant failure, resulting in smoke and a small fire contained within the switchboard components,” Princess Cruises, the owner of the vessel, said in a statement.

The crew aboard the cruise ship managed to extinguish the fire and restart the engine.

The company added that the incident was isolated but did cause a power outage resulting in the temporary use of emergency lighting.

The incident, which occurred when the vessel was 20 miles off the coast of Hilo, Hawaii, led to a slight change in the vessel’s itinerary, namely skipping the Hilo port call.

Grand Princess proceeded to Honolulu where shoreside engineers have been deployed to meet the ship for an on-time arrival at 7 am local time on December 1.

“Once the technical officers and engineers complete their assessment of the situation it will be determined if there will be any further impact to the itinerary,” the statement read.

Princess Cruises said that all guests and crew are accounted for and there were no injuries.

The ship is on the fifth day of a 15-day Hawaii cruise that departed San Francisco on November 25.

World Maritime News Staff, Image: Princess Cruises