You know, Inside Edition did a story on this yesterday, and they showed the what the sleeping compartment of a boat like that would look. Not only is it cramped to the point where you would have to wait, or turn yourself into a pretzel while others did the same, but there were only 2 exits, the main door into the compartment, and one little fire escape that would have been hard to get to, much less have 30 plus people exit it while the boat was on fire.
And, the other thing that struck me, was after they showed where the sleeping compartment was, as well as how the ship was configured, it was still considered "safe" by inspectors. Personally? I think that they need to make those boats with better configurations for sleeping and fire exits. The way it was built on the boat that caught fire was a death trap.