One passenger dies, 11 injured in cruise fire

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

MIAMI — The cruise started in Fort Lauderdale with the promise of a week's worth of Caribbean sun and warmth. It ended amid flames and smoke that left one passenger dead and 11 injured aboard the Star Princess, a 2,600-passenger behemoth of the seas.

Metal sheets bent by the heat of the blaze and rows of windows blackened by smoke across the middle third of the ship and three floors marred the left side of the $430 million liner as it docked Thursday in Jamaica's Montego Bay.

The extensive damage from a blaze initially reported to have been started around 3 a.m. by a smoldering cigarette is likely to focus public and political attention on cruise ship safety.

“These are floating cities, and they are not equipped with the type of support services that a city that size should have,” said Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and a longtime critic of the cruise industry.

Princess Cruises said the incident marked the first time in its 40-year history that a passenger died from a fire on one of its ships.

Richard Liffridge, the Atlanta-area passenger who died from cardiac arrest, had recently turned 72. He had been on a handful of cruises — and always looked forward to the next one.

“He loved to travel,” said his son, Phillip, in a telephone interview from his home in Dover, Del. “That's what I'm having a hard time accepting: How could something that's supposed to be so much fun end up like this?”