Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990 TAG: 9004120175
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK LENGTH: Medium
But the captain of the Danish ship told the inquiry that all the fire equipment and safety procedures worked and that the crew performed well in the emergency.
Captain Hugo Larsen of Norway said he was awakened by a ship's officer at 1:55 a.m. Saturday and told, "Someone is playing arsonist," as the first of three fires was discovered aboard the ship.
In Oslo, police reduced the number of dead and missing to 168, as more missing passengers reported to police. At least one American was among the dead. Officials in Sweden, where the ship was towed, said they recovered 127 bodies and had estimated up to 200 may have died.
About 500 people were on board the ship in the North Sea.
The fire broke out when the 10,500-ton Scandinavian Star was midway on an overnight trip from Oslo, Norway, to Fredrickshaven, Denmark.
Arson was the "highly probable" cause, but no motive has been found, said Oslo Police Chief Magnar Aukrust.
At the Copenhagen inquiry, fire inspector Flemming Jensen pinpointed fires in three separate places.
The first was in a pile of woolen blankets in a passageway outside a cabin below the car deck. It was quickly doused by a ship's officer.
The other two began shortly afterward in stairwells on either side of the ferry, Jensen said. The blaze spread up the staircases, past several decks and burst into the main restaurant area, he said.
The three fires must have ignited independently, he said, but he did not speculate on their causes.
After a five-hour tour of the 470-foot vessel at its mooring in Lysekil, Sweden, Jensen said only five of the vessel's 15 fire doors closed as they should have during the blaze. Hatches to the ship's ventilation ducts also were left open, he said.
Fire doors are made of metal or other fire-resistant material and are designed to keep fires from spreading.
"The firefighting equipment was in good shape, but it appeared not to have been in use," Jensen said.
Larsen, who has been accused of abandoning the ship too early, said he and his crew did "everything humanly possible" to save lives before leaving in the last lifeboat.
Looking haggard and answering questions with a word or half sentence, Larsen said he had "no idea about people below decks."
"I knew there were some passengers on the stern deck and called for a rescue boat from the [ferry] Stena Saga to pick them up, which happened," he said.
He said he left when he could no longer stay on the bridge because of heavy smoke.
Larsen, who along with the other crew and surviving passengers was rescued by a Swedish ferry, returned to the burning Scandinavian Star five hours later to help firefighters start the ship's water pumps.
The inquiry was expected to hear 15 to 20 witnesses during the next three or four days and is coordinating its findings with those of Norwegian and Swedish authorities.
At a meeting late Tuesday, the maritime directors of Sweden, Norway and Denmark approved tighter measures to inspect ships flying foreign flags of convenience in Nordic waters. The commission decided that the foreign-flagged ships must in the future undergo safety checks by a Nordic maritime authority and the crew must demonstrate firefighting skills.
by CNB