A tour boat that suffered irreparable damage following an onboard fire in 2022 will be sunk off the Gulf Coast of Florida as an artificial reef. Spirit of Norfolk and another decommissioned vessel have been acquired by Florida's Okaloosa County for sinking off Fort Walton Beach, where they will become new dive attractions and fish habitats.
The vessel will be cleaned thoroughly before being sunk. Once at the bottom, it will stand 40 feet (12 metres) above the seabed. County officials said this will provide plenty of exploration opportunities for divers.
The vessel caught fire during a sightseeing cruise near Naval Station Norfolk, Viriginia, on June 7, 2022, with 108 people on board. The fire was too large for the crew to fight, and the passengers and crew were evacuated to other vessels. It then took firefighters four days to extinguish the blaze.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said no injuries were reported while the vessel was declared a total loss of US$5 million.
NTSB investigators determined that the fire on Spirit of Norfolk was likely caused by the ignition of combustible materials stored near the exhaust pipe of the operating port generator. As the vessel was in service before 1996, it was not required to have engine room fire detection and fixed fire extinguishing systems. The NTSB said the lack of these systems allowed the fire to grow unnoticed and precluded crew firefighting efforts.