About 1600 on the afternoon of January 14, 2018, a fire broke out in an unmanned space on the small passenger vessel
Island Lady near Port Richey, Florida, during a scheduled transit to a casino boat located about 9 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Fifty-three people were on board the
Island Lady. After receiving a high-temperature alarm on the port engine, the captain turned the
Island Lady around to return to the dock. During the return trip, smoke began filling the lazarette, main deck, and engine room. The captain deliberately beached the vessel in shallow water near shore to evacuate the passengers. All crewmembers, employees, and passengers evacuated the vessel by entering the water and wading/crawling ashore. Fifteen people were injured and transported to local hospitals; one passenger died in the hospital several hours after the fire. The Island Lady, valued at $450,000, was declared a constructive total loss.
We identified safety issues in the following areas:
- Lack of company guidance regarding engine high-temperature alarms
- Lack of fire detection in unmanned spaces with exhaust tubing
- Insufficient preventive maintenance
- Insufficient crew training and documentation
- Inappropriate material and design of fuel tank level-indicator system
The probable cause of the fire on board small passenger vessel Island Lady was Tropical Breeze Casino Cruz's ineffective preventive maintenance program and insufficient guidance regarding the response to engine high-temperature conditions, which resulted in the captain’s continued operation of an engine that was overheating due to a cooling water pump failure, leading to ignition of the exhaust tubing and surrounding structure. Contributing to the spread of the fire was the lack of fire detection in the vessel’s lazarette, which was not required by regulations and which allowed the fire to take holdunbeknownst to the crew.
Based on this investigation, we made new safety recommendations to Tropical Breeze Casino Cruz and the US Coast Guard and also reiterated existing recommendations to the
Coast Guard
