WORLD : Fatal Ferry Fire Believed Arson
The fire that killed two people and injured dozens aboard a huge North Sea passenger ferry apparently was deliberately set, police said today.
The 600-foot Tor Scandinavia was traveling from Goteborg, Sweden, to Harwich, England, with 650 passengers and crew when the fire broke out at dawn Monday.
The fire was put out within a few hours and the Danish ferry, owned by the shipping company Scandinavian Seaways, sailed under its own power to its home port, Esbjerg.
Esbjerg police inspector Herluf Mogensen said the fire started in a hall with linen closets, close to a staircase on a passenger deck in the bow. The staircase leads up to the radio room. Mogensen said electric failure had been excluded as a cause of the blaze.
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