An engine room fire aboard a 30-metre, 216 gt yacht La Dolce Vita on March 26th 2021 was probably caused by an electric source within the sound enclosure for the starboard generators, an investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has found.
The fire broke out aboard the yacht while it was anchored near Marquesas Keys in the Gulf of Mexico. The crew of four unsuccessfully attempted to extinguish the fire. They, and two passengers also on board,abandoned the yacht into the vessel’s tender boat. They were then assisted by two US Coast Guard boats. No injuries were reported. The fire resulted in the total loss of the yacht, valued at $3.9m.
The fiberglass-reinforced plastic vessel was built in 2008 by Hargrave Custom Yachts in Kaoshiung, Taiwan, China, and was registered in the US under the name King Baby, but was renamed after being sold to La Dolce Vita Ltd in 2012. The hull, deck, and superstructure’s fiberglass was reinforced with a foam core. The vessel was registered and used as a pleasure yacht for part of the year and was also chartered for hire four to six times a year.
The Cayman Islands-flagged vessel was anchored with the crew preparing for the passengers to go snorkelling when the fire began. The captain and mate described the smell of the smoke as being like burning plastic, as if the insulation from wires was burning. According to investigators, this, combined with the captain and mate’s description of where the smoke and flames emanated, suggests the fire may have originated in the
electric generator end of the starboard genset enclosure. However, due to the extent of the fire damage, investigators were unable to conclusively determine the source of the fire.
The NTSB said that contributing to the severity of the fire and total loss of the vessel was the inability to secure ventilation to the engine room, which reduced the effectiveness of the yacht’s fire extinguishing system and allowed the fire to spread beyond the engine room.
“Fixed fire-extinguishing systems in machinery and other hazardous spaces require a minimum concentration of extinguishing agent to either halt the chemical reaction producing the fire, displace the oxygen feeding the fire, or effect a combination of both,” the report said. “To ensure the effectiveness of the system and prevent the reintroduction of oxygen to the space, vessel designers and owners should ensure that the ventilation, both natural and forced draft, can be completely and remotely secured to all fire-protected spaces, and that all machinery within these same fire-protected spaces can be remotely stopped from outside the space where the machinery is situated.”
