First to address the fire itself. Yes, Titanic did set sail with a fire in coal bunker seven. This fire was burning until the day before the ship hit the iceberg, and was put out by the stokers in boiler room six, but this fire was not a raging fire. Coal fires were not uncommon on ships of the day, and occur when coal is piled into a large coal bunker causing it to spontaneously combust due to the pressure put on the coal at the bottom. These fires are not raging fires, though, or thip would be a smoking hulk in mere hours, but instead are smouldering coals that tend to spread very slow.

Though the fire quite obviously did not affect the sinking negatively as proven by aforementioned evidence, it has been proposed by the historians at Titanic: Honor and Glory, including historian Parks Stevenson, that the coal fire actually saved Titanic from capsizing within an hour after the collision with the berg. This theory goes that the coal which was transferred to the other side of the ship caused a two and a half to three degree list to port, a list reported by numerous passengers as early as the day before the collision. When Titanic hit the berg on the starboard side, she should have capsized in an hour which was what chief architect Thomas Andrews originally predicted she would immediately after the collision, but she didn’t and floated for two hours and forty minutes.

The theory goes that the water had to first overcome the three degree list to port before being able to list to starboard. By that point, the water reached Scotland road,which is a corridor that ran the length of the ship along e-deck and caused a list to port of nine degrees as the water reached the forward well deck, a list that is widely reported in the inquiry testimonies unlike the supposed raging coal fire. Had the water not had to overcome the original three degree list, though, it would have been too late by the time water reached e-deck, and Titanic would roll over in around an hour with nearly all or all aboard lost, as lifeboat seven, the first lifeboat to leave Titanic, left the ship a full hour after the collision. Had she of not had to overcome the three degree list, then Titanic would already be on her side by the time lifeboat seven was launched in real life. This theory was also demonstrated in the currently accepted 2012 theory, established by James Cameron and other historians in the centennial anniversary documentary Titanic: The Final Word.