Cause of Charter Yacht Fire
I’m still trying to pry even the smallest morsel of information about the Lady Candida fire out of management company Camper & Nicholsons International, which has gone radio silence except to say that everyone onboard escaped the blaze safely. I don’t think the company is acting suspiciously at this point; I believe they’re still trying to sort out what happened.
A number of things can cause a fire onboard a yacht. The engineroom and galley are the two most typical places for sparks to fly, for obvious reasons. Sometimes, fires start in passenger cabins when people smoke against the yacht’s policies. Faulty wiring within the yacht’s walls is another usual suspect.
However, fires that turn into blazes that sink an entire charter yacht and require everyone to escape in lifeboats are highly unusual. Enginerooms and galleys onboard yachts of Lady Candida’s caliber usually have fire protection systems installed to quarantine fires in those spaces. Given the yacht’s recent and extensive refitting, faulty wiring could be an area worth looking into. But again, that a wiring spark would bring down an entire yacht would be highly unusual. Crew are trained to handle such emergencies.
I’m talking to sources on the record and off to try to learn more about this story for you. Stay tuned: I’ll post whatever legitimate details I can verify.