Fire Down Below

Fire Origin and Duration:

• A small fire was smoldering in one of Titanic’s coal bunkers due to spontaneous combustion when the ship departed Southampton on April 10.
• The fire was fought by digging out the coal and applying water, and it was extinguished by April 13, the day before the collision with the iceberg.

Impact on the Ship:

• The fire caused slight distortion to the steel watertight bulkhead forming part of the bunker wall.
• The bulkhead was dented and had paint burned off, indicating it had been exposed to high temperatures.

Coal Bunker Configuration:

• The coal bunker was divided by a watertight bulkhead into two compartments.
• Coal was removed from both sides of the bulkhead to fight the fire.

Water Ingress Post-Collision:

• After the collision, water entered the ship through the damaged hull and the empty bunker space.
• Leading fireman Frederick Barrett observed water entering the ship at the rate of an ordinary fire hose.

Misconceptions and Clarifications:

• Some believed the fire weakened the bulkhead, causing it to collapse and leading to catastrophic flooding.
• Forensic analysis suggests the fire did not weaken the bulkhead enough to cause it to fail.

Probable Cause of Water Rush:

• The likely cause of the rush of water seen by Barrett was the collapse of a bunker door, not the bulkhead itself.
• The bunker doors were not designed to be watertight and could not withstand the pressure of the incoming water.

Forensic Analysis:

• Metallurgical analysis showed that the bulkhead would not have been significantly weakened by the fire.
• The bulkhead plate would have distorted but remained intact under the conditions described.