Fire breaks out on Norwegian Getaway’

The fire, which caused heavy clouds of smoke, is thought to have started in a small pool equipment room on the 145,000t cruise ship, but the cause is not yet known.

The affected production areas and the shipyard’s visitors centre were evacuated as the yard’s fire brigade and members of the Papenburg fire department were called to the yard premises.

Markus Wähler, safety manager at the yard, said: “In general we install large sized safety and detection systems on our ships as early as in the construction period so we could react very quickly.”

Meyer Werft says nobody was injured during the fire and is unsure of material damage at this time.

The 324m vessel, which is the sister vessel of the Norwegian Breakaway, is being built for US cruise operator, Norwegian Cruise Line.

The company says it does not expect any delay in the delivery of the ship, which is scheduled for January 2014.

Norwegian Getaway is due to begin weekly seven day cruises from Miami to the Eastern Caribbean on 1 February 2014.