Blazing cruise ship evacuated

An engine room fire has forced the evacuation of more than 600 passengers and crew from the cruise ship Deutschland.
The luxury 22,500-ton ship was in port at Eidfjord, Norway, when the blaze broke out today. Per Fjeld, spokesman for the Norwegian rescue services, said there were no reports of injuries among the 364 passengers and 241 crew.
He added that although it had not spread from the engine room, the fire was not yet under control. “It is still too hot. We first must get the temperatures in the surrounding areas down.
“We are using pumps and hoses to try to cool down the hull,” Fjeld said, adding that it was too early to say how much damage the ship had suffered.
MS Deutschland is operated by Peter Deilmann Cruises. All but 30 of the passengers were from Germany; the others are from Australia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and Japan.
The ship had been due to leave Eidfjord this evening, bound for Hamburg, and was then scheduled to sail to London and on to a round-Britain voyage.
In July last year, the ship took part in a joint excercise with the Welsh fire and rescue service at Milford Haven to tackle a simulated fire in the crew area.
Deilmann last year closed its river cruise operation, which had a fleet of eight five-star ships.
The Air France Concorde which crashed on take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in July 2000 had been chartered to carry passengers to join the Deutschland in New York. All 100 were killed, together with nine crew.