Yorktown fire reignites concerns

MOUNT PLEASANT -- An electrical fire aboard the museum warship Yorktown early Tuesday reinforces the need to complete a fire safety system aboard the ship.

Last year, the State Fire Marshal's Office pushed for Patriots Point to either install sprinklers where campers, mostly Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, sleep aboard the aircraft carrier or discontinue the enormously popular program. The issue wound up in state Administrative Law Court, where Patriots Point appealed the fire marshal's order.

Officials with Patriots Point and the fire marshal say that debate is over. Authorities are now trying to finish working out a compromise on how to handle fire and smoke dangers.

The most recent Administrative Law Court order, dated in November, granted an emergency hearing for a state expert to examine the Yorktown. But this year, Patriots Point reached an agreement with the new fire marshal.

The agreement included a list of requirements, including emergency lighting, an air-exchange system to suck out smoke and well-marked paths to safety. Smoke, not fire, proved to be the real danger anyway, according to Patriots Point Executive Director Mac Burdette.

"That sprinkler system was an idiotic thing from the beginning," he said. "The ship is not going to burn down. There's no way it could burn down."

The agreement also set a cap on the number of campers aboard the ship any night at 600 people. Patriots Point still must complete two requirements from its plan with the fire marshal: establish a system that can pump 2,500 gallons of water per minute at any given time, and create a network of pipes to reach some of the Yorktown's higher decks without requiring firefighters to lug their hoses up to them.

Burdette said the attraction continues to work with the Mount Pleasant Fire Department to finish those remaining safety improvements. He noted that campers sleep on fire- retardant mattresses and that the attraction provides a fire-watch crew every time campers sleep over.

"We have more ways to get off this ship than there are ways to get out of the convention center," Burdette added.

The fire early Tuesday began at a desk in the ship's print shop, an office on the gallery deck where a Patriots Point employee creates posters, brochures and other promotional materials. Mount Pleasant Battalion Chief Bud Thames said the ship's wiring appeared sound and that a device -- such as a printer or monitor -- likely sparked the fire, which investigators ruled an accident.

Mount Pleasant firefighters, responding to the ship's alarm, arrived at the Yorktown shortly after 12:30 a.m. They extinguished the fire in about 10 minutes, containing the damage to the single compartment, according to Battalion Chief Steve Drozd.

Emergency workers took a firefighter to the hospital for heat exhaustion and treated others at the scene. The hospitalized firefighter later was released.

Yellow crime-scene tape blocked the entrance to the print shop Tuesday morning, where the smell of smoke hung in the air. A tarp covered a singed chair and melted compact discs that firefighters had tossed from the shop.

"If the fire started at 2 p.m. the guy would've seen sparks, unplugged the thing and there wouldn't be a story," Burdette said. But under the circumstances he estimated the damage at $20,000.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or @allysonjbird. Reach Andy Paras at 937-5589, @AndyParas or on Facebook.