Did a fire help sink the Titanic? In 1912, the “unsinkable” ship, en route from England to New York, slammed into a giant iceberg and went down in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1,500 people. But Irish journalist Senan Molony, an expert on the Titanic, says there’s more to the story. He argues that a fire that started in the ship’s cavernous coal bunker before it set sail weakened its hull, helping to seal its fate before it hit the iceberg. The fire was acknowledged during the post-disaster inquiry but played down by officials-. However, long-lost photos of the ship were recently found in Ireland, and Molony says they reveal a 30-foot-long black mark on the ship’s hull, where it was later pierced by the iceberg. Engineers at Imperial College London agreed the mark was probably caused by a serious fire. “It’s a perfect storm of extraordinary factors coming together: fire, ice, and criminal negligence,” Molony says. “She should never have been put to sea.”