Queen Mary gets a bit hot under the funnel

A small fire broke out on Cunard’s flagship Queen Mary 2 on Wednesday evening.

According to the line, the fire occurred at 7:47 p.m. EDT and was immediately extinguished. “Neither passengers nor crew were adversely affected, and neither was the operation of the ship,” said United Kingdom-based spokesman Eric Flounders. The fire was caused by one of QM2’s gas turbines, which are situated below and behind the ship’s funnel. They’re used to augment power to the ship’s main quartet of diesel turbines, allowing the ship to travel at a higher maximum speed (some 30 knots).

Wednesday’s fire is QM2’s second in just over a year. In September 2010, a dangerous explosion in a switchboard room caused a brief power outage.

Being a former crew member, I know that extensive training is given to Crew for situations like this.  Some crew members are fully trained firemen.  The crew go through a weeks long fire course before their contract starts.  Every cruise there are training runs to keep the crew on thier toes incase of such a situation.

If at any time you do hear over the ships tannoy ‘Bravo Bravo this is a drill’ The crew are involved in a fire training excersize.