You have probably heard about the fire on the Ferry Norman Atlantic in the Adriatic between Greece and Italy, but there were a couple of particularly interesting notes in this CNN report that suggest a failure of marine inspection authorities.
In the first three hours of the fire, around 150 people were able to escape via the vessel’s lifeboats. But when the ferry lost power, the electronic arms were unable to function, leaving the rest of the boats dangling uselessly by its side.
It’s not known how the fire started, but it’s believed to have originated in the parking bay. A truck driver told the Greek news media that trucks filled with oil were “packed like sardines,” their cargo scraping the ceiling, which could have set off sparks in rough seas to start a fire, he surmised.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Apparently the death toll is up to eight and sounds like it may go substantially higher. Apparently no alarm was sounded, passengers were sleeping and woke each other up. http://www.aol.com/article/2014/12/29/greek-coast-guard-432-people-rescued-from-ferry-fire/21122131/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D590370
I’ve seen a allegation that the ship had many deficiencies at a recent inspection. If true this would have contributed to the severity of the incident and may turn into a bit of a scandal about the recent inspections and the current state of Greece or Italy’s port state control inspection program.
Thanks. Ferry’s frequently seem to get a pass on safety requirements instead of being shut down until fixed.
gCaptain has some photographs here: http://gcaptain.com/norman-atlantic-fire-damage-images/, and here: http://gcaptain.com/hundreds-trapped-ferry-burns-heavy-seas-greece/