The Deadly MY Hurricane Fire

It was early Sunday morning, about 6:30 a.m., June 11. The liveaboard MY Hurricane was moored near Elphinstone Reef, a popular dive site in Egypt's Red Sea. The passengers had gathered in the main salon to be briefed for their first dive of the day, the last day of their week-long trip. Two passengers had decided to sleep in.

And then the fire came. It apparently started in the engine room and almost instantly turned into an inferno, quickly engulfing the aft deck of the 125-foot vessel in flames. Those two passengers who had skipped the first dived perished in their cabins. One supposes the third person who died had heroically gone below to find them and perished too. It was a tragedy.

In light of this fire, the recent capsizing of another liveaboard in the Red Sea and several vessels that recently ran onto reefs begs the question, "Is it safe to go diving in Egypt?"

The Red Sea has never been a top destination for American divers, not only because it's 17 hours from New York, but because many see the Middle East as unsafe (Egyptian ports are not unsafe.) However, the diving industry there is larger than any other in the world, thanks to its high-quality diving, the water clarity, and its proximity to European cities, which are roughly five hours away by air. It was once a "wild-west" destination, but in the last three decades, it has become a popular vacation hotspot. Still, they've had their share of liveaboard disasters.

While accidents happen too often, given the number of liveaboard vessels (about 175) registered in Egypt, statistically, it may be no riskier than anywhere else.

MY. Hurricane, winner of Diver Magazine's Liveaboard of the Year award four years in a row, had been a favorite with British divers for more than two decades. I know that no expenses were spared in its construction. It had a steel hull (unusual in Egyptian-built vessels, which typically have wooden hulls) and modern safety equipment, including inert gas fire suppression in the engine room.

The COVID pandemic led to cutbacks in most liveaboards, as the over-capacity of the Egyptian diving industry made it harder to be profitable at the low prices divers had become used to. To survive, many liveaboard owners cut whatever corners they could, perhaps reducing their crafts' safety. Add to that inexpensive lithium-ion batteries from dubious sources and the addition of onboard oxygen tanks to serve increased popularity of closed-circuit rebreathers - including the lack of understanding of the risk oxygen is to fires - and you can see how safety can easily be impaired.

The exact cause of the Hurricane fire may never be determined. It became an inferno so quickly that those awake had no alternative but to either jump into the tenders tied to the stern or prow of the vessel or jump overboard. An escape hatch from the cabins below decks opened at the foredeck, but the three dead passengers were undoubtedly overcome by smoke or heat before they could get to it. It was probably impossible for a would-be rescuer to open the escape hatch from the deck outside. I imagine some crew members would have desperately tried to pry it open before leaping into the water to save themselves from the encroaching flames. One could not begin to imagine the horror if such a fire had started just an hour or two earlier when everyone was sleeping.

Hurricane was so quickly engulfed in flames that something was fueling the fire. Was it oxygen carried for rebreather divers? Gasoline stored for the dive tenders? Or something else? We'll probably never know.

The 14 crew and 12 surviving passengers from Hurricane were ferried over to a nearby liveaboard in that boat's dive tenders, from where the BBC's video (see below) was shot. Later in the day, the smoldering hulk of the steel-hulled vessel was towed into port. The survivors were accommodated at a resort in Marsa Shagra and questioned by investigators. The remains of the three deceased British passengers were later recovered. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65871310

- John Bantin