Costa Allegra: passengers tell of 'hell" on-board Sheer luck has disguised the incompetence from start to finish. Some people are blissfully unaware of how lucky they are. The alarm was first raised at around 1.30pm on Monday when an electrical fault caused a fire in the engine room and power was lost. The Tannoy system shut down as did air conditioning, lighting, refrigerators and running water. All passengers were told to go to their muster stations, at which point many said they feared they would have to abandon ship. The fate of the Costa Concordia, Allegra's sister ship, which capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio six weeks ago, killing at least 26 people, was at the forefront of their minds. It then took three hours to conduct a roll call amid chaotic scenes and growing panic. As black smoke billowed from one of the chimneys, it became immediately clear that a fire had broken out on board. The tourists, of whom 31 were British, said they were held in the stations for several hours. They were informed of what was going on by staff using flip charts or mega phones. Their closest relatives were informed of the situation by Costa staff but the lack of electricity and phone signal meant that no one was able to get in touch with loved ones. Pam Morrey, from Stoke on Trent, was given the holiday as a present for her 60th birthday, which she celebrated on board with her husband David, 61, before disaster struck. "It was an absolute debacle," she said. They were manually trying to check everyone off. If we had to disembark there would have been huge problems. No one knew what was going on. If anything had gone against us, such as the weather, we would have had it. Information was kept from us, we were fed dry bread sandwiches with thick salami and spam. No one was washing, everyone's hands were in the food, I'm staggered there wasn't an outbreak of dysentery or something. American Gordon Bradwell, 72, from Georgia, who used to worked in the travel industry, was on the cruise ship with his wife Eleanor when the engine caught fire. "It was very tense," he said. We are just happy to have got through it. We were very hot and the sewage was very poor. Right now we're delighted to be off the ship. We are living off adrenalin right now. We have been eating dried sandwiches for three days so we are looking forward to eating a proper meal. After the fire broke out there was nothing to propel the ship along. Thing deteriorated rather quickly. There was no running water so we had go back to living a primitive existence. The cabin temperature reached 110F so we had to sleep on the deck. Mrs Bradwell said the fire started as many of the passengers were having lunch. She said: "All of a sudden an alarm went off. There was a lot of chaos and confusion. They (the management) were very disorganised and unprofessional. First we thought we were going to get off and broad the lifeboats. But then they changed their minds. This is when the hardship started. There were seven shorts beeps. We knew it was an emergency and not a drill. Mr Bradwell added: 'I was separated from my wife for about two hours. That was the hardest bit. It was a big concern to find my wife. Had the fire got out of control we were a long way from home. Who knows what the result would have been then. We don't have any rancour or animosity. The luxury liner docked shortly before 11.30am local time (7.30GMT). It took at least two hours to get the passengers off the ship and chaos ensued as media who had travelled from all over the world raced to intercept them as they collected their luggage. Six passengers who were taken ill on board were the first to be taken off. One was in a wheelchair and others were helped down a gangway and treated by medics in a first aid tent. It is unclear how sick they are. It will take several hours to get everyone off the liner. Many could be seen vigorously fanning themselves on the top deck and in the cabins as they awaited their turn. Of the 31 British passengers on board, all but one of whom are over 50, most opted to remain in the Seychelles for a holiday, paid for by Costa. They were transferred to hotels on neighbouring islands by boat. Two passengers were due to fly to Rome tonight before catching a connecting flight to the UK.