| 19 Sept 1992 Ship a bake oven for firefighters The Love Boat has kindled fiery romances, but the passenger liner was�ent much of a romantic place for Greater Victoria firefighters this week. A smouldering $1 million fire on Thursday turned the luxury cruise ship, Pacific Princess, made famous in the long running tv series The Love boat, into a blackened bake oven for an estimated 60 firefighter called to the Esquimalt Graving Dock to put out the stubborn blaze. Feelings were anything but amorous as firefighters crawled out of the ship�s bow gasping for air,said Esquimalt Fire Department acting Sgt. Cam MacIntyre. �It was just terrible,� he said. �If you put yourself inside an oven and were given scrub brush and told to start cleaning, blindfolded, that�s what it was like � The fire started below deck in cabin rooms used to store mattresses and bedding for the 168metre,610 passenger liner, MacIntyre said. A light in one of the cabins was suspected to have heated up the mattresses and started the fire. The smoke and fire spread along a steel floor through a vent in the cabin ceiling. The fire was confined to below deck, but the steel floor above the fire was almost red hot, said MacIntyre. �It was real difficult space to work in� said MacIntyre. �You were asked to get in there with an axe and pikepole and pull things down, and you know that the burning embers are going to fall on your head. There were electrical wires all around and you could�ent see two feet in front of your face. Esquimalt, federal dockyards, Saanich, Victoria and View royal firefighters helped fight the blaze. The fire, reported at about 5:15pm, was under control by 7:30pm. Firefighters wearing airtanks descended into the ship to fight the blaze. �A good, fit guy is good for 15 to 20 minutes in there � said MacIntyre �The heat was very,very intensive. It was burning above the fellows heads� The Los Angeles-based Pacific Princess, owned by Princess cruises, is in Esquimalt undergoing a $7 million refit. About 750 workers are on a deadline to get the job done in three weeks.Work started last week. The 400 workers on the ship Thursday we evacuated safely. One firefighter suffered minor burns when embers fell under his uniform McIntyre said. Yarrows Ltd, the company doing the refit contract, said Thursday it was confident the fire would not hold up work. Yarrow was not available for further comment on Thursday. MacIntyre said damage was extensive to the boats electrical system and cabins below deck. Yarrows spokesman told fire officials most of the damaged material on the ship was due for replacement on the refit, he said. The last firefighters left the dock area at 12:15 a.m Friday. Construction workers were �going great guns� on the ship said MacIntyre. |