lightning strike might have sparked the fire
WATCH: Cruise News Today – Less than two years after Carnival Freedom experienced a fire that damaged its funnel, the ship encountered another smoke stack fire under different circumstances. Reports from Carnival Cruise Line and eyewitnesses to Cruise Radio suggest a lightning strike might have sparked the fire.
BREVARD COUNTY • PORT CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – Port Canaveral-based Carnival Freedom reported a fire on the port side of the ship’s exhaust funnel 20 miles off Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, while heading to Freeport after a canceled call to Princess Cay due to weather.
The ship suffered the fire while sailing through severe weather when passengers reported an extremely loud thunder clap and lightning. Shortly after, a fire was reported in the port side exhaust.
The 110,000 ton, 952-foot long ship has 13 decks and accomodates 2,980 passengers and 1,150 crewmembers.
Soon after the fire broke out, the captain turned the ship around toward an area with heavy rain to maximize efforts of extinguishing the flames. The captain made several announcements to guests and crew and advised everyone to stay away from the balconies and all open decks.
“There are no operational issues with the ship’s systems and the ship is expected to arrive to Freeport on Sunday morning,” Carnival officials said in a statement on social media.
“The captain has made multiple announcements to guests and crew and advised all but essential safety personnel to stay away from all open decks. There are no injuries. The port side portion of the funnel has fallen onto Deck 10 and the fire response is putting out the flames.”
Carnival officials said it did not expect any impact to the next Carnival Freedom voyage scheduled to depart from Port Canaveral on Monday, March 25.
The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified and that it had activated the company’s response team to support the ship’s crew.
Carnival Freedom is a Conquest-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line and was launched in Venice, Italy in 2006.
On May 26, 2022, Carnival Freedom suffered a large fire in her funnel while she was docked in Grand Turk. The fire was extinguished with no injuries reported. Significant damage was sustained to part of the funnel, on the starboard side.
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