The U.S. Coast Guard released the Marine
Casualty Investigation into the fatal engineroom
fire on board the SSG EDWARD A. CARTER JR on July 14, 2001. Two mariners died during the fire. The primary cause was determined to be human error on the part of the Second Assistant Engineer in failing to monitor the transfer
of heavy fuel oil from the overflow tanks to the settling tank. The resulting spill was ignited by an undetermined source. A significant
contributing factor was the failed operation of the ship's fixed CO2 firefighting system.