Welding Sparked Fire on Cruise Ship Off Fla.
Unauthorized welding on laundry room equipment ignited a fire aboard the cruise ship Ecstasy off Miami in 1998, injuring 22 people and causing more than $17 million in damage, U.S. safety investigators concluded Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that sparks from the welding caused a fire that ignited a large accumulation of lint in the laundry room ventilation ducts.
Owned by Carnival Corp., the Ecstasy, with 2,565 passengers and 916 crew, was left adrift several miles east of Miami before rescue crews doused the fire and towed the ship back to port.
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