On December 1, 2024, about 0352, the pipelayer Deep Energy was docked at the Millard Maritime facility, located in Theodore, Alabama, undergoing a maintenance period, when a fire started within one of the vessel’s three crane cabins. The crew began fighting the fire and contacted the local fire department, who extinguished the fire. There were no injuries. The crane cabin on the Deep Energy sustained significant fire damage that was estimated at $1.8 million.
We determined that the probable cause of the fire within the knuckle boom crane cabin aboard the pipelayer Deep Energy was likely the result of an unknown malfunction of, or an electrical fault within, the refrigerator or its associated electrical receptacle.
