The 105 foot Safari Spirit caught fire early Friday morning while docked in Seattle. The ship is currently laid up while undergoing upgrades prior to commencing her Summer Alaskan deployment. There was only the vessel owner and the engineer onboard. Both were able to escape.

The pictures are pretty dramatic. She will be considered a Constructive Total Loss once surveyors have had the time to go through it.

All guests booked will have their bookings transferred to other sips in their fleet.

This is not the ships first incident. On May 8, 2003, she ran aground and had to be evacuated in Alaska.

Allure’s sister, Oasis is currently docked in Port Everglades.

Last night news broke via CruiseLaw and the AP that a small fire in the engine room broke out on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. The Allure, which shares the title of worlds largest cruise ship, was sailing back to Florida from St. Maarten on the last leg of a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise. She will arrive Sunday morning.

A Royal Caribbean spokes person stated shortly thereafter, that the fire was “small and short-lived.” The ship onboard fire suppressant kicked in extinguished the fire almost instantly.

While the fire was short lived, it did allow enough time for this black smoke to be seen coming from the ships funnels. CruiseLaw was reporting that there was some panic onboard, but that can be expected given the recent events in the cruise industry. It should be noted that people’s perception of the term panic differs greatly.

While sailing between the Philippines and Borneo, an engine room fire broke out onboard Azamara Club Cruises’ Azamara Quest. The fire on the 30,277grt ship was first reported by a BBC Broadcast Journalist on twitter:

hearing reports a cruise ship is on fire in Borneo – that there is chaos on board #Cruise #Borneo its full of western tourists

— Simon Browning (@simbrowning) March 30, 2012

@CruiseLaw 6* liner off Borneo has a fire in engine room. All passengers sent to cabins. All currently accounted for. Told 1 phone call each

— Simon Browning (@simbrowning) March 30, 2012

Azamara’s official statement.:

On Friday, March 30, at approximately 8:19 p.m. ship time, Azamara Quest experienced a fire in the engine room. The fire was contained to the engine room and was quickly extinguished. There were no injuries of guests reported and the atmosphere aboard is calm. However, in an abundance of caution, the Captain initially mustered all guests at their assembly stations. The ship is currently running on generator power until full power can be restored to the engine room.

Azamara Quest is currently on a 17-night sailing that departed Hong Kong, China, on Monday, March 26, and includes port calls to Manila, Philippines; Sandakan (Sabah), Malaysia; Palapo (Sulawesi), Benoa (Bali), Semarang and Komodo, Indonesia and concludes in Singapore on Thursday, April 12.

This incident comes right as it seems the public has forgotten about the Costa Allegra fire under similar circumstances.

The Costa Allegra is currently still under tow with an eta of Tomorrow Morning in the Seychelles.

Upon Arrival at the Seychelles, the passengers will immediately be flown to Rome for repatriation. Remember that the passengers will be permanently disembarking in the country not originally intended, therefore Rome was seen as the best viable option. Costa has chartered 3 planes that are currently at the airport, waiting for the vessels arrival.

Helicopters are flying in food and water, just link in the Splendor incident of 2010.

photo:(AP Photo/Indian Navy via Seychelles Office of the President)

Here’s the latest on the Allegra fire.

• Well as predicted, the internet is blowing up over this. I keep thinking, what if the Concordia never happened? Would we even be hearing about this?
• Funny articles headlines are popping up stating that stricken cruise ship is adrift in Pirate infested waters, etc. Pure sensationalism.

• The Allegra is currently being towed by the fishing boat above for the time being.
• Two tugs will arrive on the scene later today.
• I guess since she is a small cruise ship by industry standards, they don’t need to utilize a seagoing tug as in the case of the Carnival Splendor and the ss Norway.
• She will be towed to the Seychelle-ian (?) port of Mahe.
• She will arrive March 1st in the AM.

File photo:wikiMedia

The AP is reporting that fire broke out on the Costa Allegra. All passengers are accounted for and safe, but the ship is adrift without power in the Indian Ocean.

In the wake of the Concordia disaster, you can bet this story will be blown out of proportion. Basically, if thins didn’t transpire as they did in Italy, we wouldn’t have this as breaking news.

UPDATE 1: 1,049 passengers and crew members reported to be onboard.

UPDATE 2: Reports now state that the fire was limited to the diesel generator room only. It was quickly extinguished. The Italian Coast Guard Cdr. Cosimo Nicastro stated: "the fire danger is over."

This incident is similar to the Carnival Splendor fire of Nov. 2010.

UPDATE 3: From Costa’s Statement:

Currently the ship is more than 200 miles southwest of the Seychelles and approximately 20 miles from Alphonse Island. Tugboats and other naval and aerial units have been dispatched to Costa Allegra.

In July we reported about the sinking of a Russian river ship.  Well yesterday, fire broke out on the Sergey Abramov. A crew member is still missing as of this post and two people were taken to the hospital. She was still tied up pierside when the blaze happened. The cause is currently being speculated as faulty wiring or negligence.

This demonstrates another dramatic event in the Russian river industry. Local Russian vessels have been plagued with issued. The fleet is very old. Think soviet era. The July sinking brought to light, just how bad of shape these ships are in. If something doesn’t change soon, history may repeat itself soon.

video after the break:

video: RT

photo: RIA Novosti (via Voice of Russia)

[The Fire]was swiftly dealt with by the ship’s company and had no impact to any guests, crew or to the structural integrity of the ship.

That’s what the media would want you to think:

Norway: Cruise ship in danger of tilting over

Norway: Cruise ship listing, may tilt over (CBS News)

The sort answer is no. I mean, have we not learned anything from the Normandie? 

photo courtesy of local twitter user Elisabeth G. from Alesund, Norway