I tend to disagree with part of that article. Fires were not all that common in the bunkers. When Hendrickson testified and they asked him "So this is a common event on ships?" He replied "No." and went on to say not in his 4-5 years of service with the White Star Line. I'm sure it did happen occasionally, but not as frequent as we think.

Also, if a fire is blazing, and as we know based on eye witness accounts that the steel was actually out of place and pushed in before she stuck ice. I would imagine the bulkhead would weaken a little. With the amount of water rushing in, the brittle bulkhead couldn't hold up. Again, based on what Hendrickson and Barrett have said, this seems considerable.