I love reading the coast guard write up of cruise lines. often they show that in complex systems relatively small fuck ups can have greatly magnified consequences. this example is one of the funniest/saddest in a while

"At about 1630, the mangle, a machine that steam presses linens, began to malfunction. Linens fed into the mangle were bunching up. A ship's fitter was summoned. He attempted to align the rollers of the mangle. In trying to adjust a bolt, he broke it off."

By this time, a second fitter had arrived to help. The two went off to gather welding equipment and a fire blanket. When they returned, the first fitter spread the fire blanket over the rollers, climbed up onto the mangle and attempted to weld the bolt back on. The second fitter noticed the welding leads were too low and pulled the cables up, causing the leads to spark.

The sparks ignited a fire on the floor under the rollers. The two fitters managed to extinguish that fire with water from a sink. Then they noticed flames and smoke coming from the ventilation duct directly above the mangle. Their efforts to put the fire out with extinguishers failed and they evacuated the area.

The flames, feeding on the lint, were then making their way through the laundry's ventilation duct, which exits in the vicinity of the ship's aft mooring deck. It was here that the fire became most intense, feeding on the polypropylene mooring lines. About 7,200 pounds of this line was stored on three winches and five pallets. The lines on the starboard side of the deck did not burn, but the fire consumed the rest, approximately 3/4 of the total.