Fire is the biggest danger of any vessel at sea. On Saturday, crew of the Carnival Freedom had to deal with that danger firsthand when the ship’s funnel caught on fire in the middle of the cruise.
The incident occurred at around 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, with the ship sailing in The Bahamas. According to a passenger on the ship, Heath Barnes, the fire was caused by lightning as Freedom went through a thunderstorm.
“I knew the boom and thunder that I heard shortly before the fire hit something. It was the loudest I had ever heard in my life,” he posted on Facebook.
Images shared online show the port side of the funnel in flames and putting off a thick, black smoke:
Crew on board cruise ships are trained in firefighting and were able to put out the flames, with a little help from mother nature. Carnival says the captain was able steer the vessel toward heavy rain to help with the efforts to extinguish the fire.
In a statement to news station WFLA.com, Carnival shared the following:
“The ship’s fire response team was quickly activated, and the ship’s captain also turned the vessel towards the heavy rain in the area to maximize the efforts to put out the flames. Eyewitnesses reported the possibility of a lightning strike and that is being investigated but cannot yet be confirmed.”
The news station reports that there were no injuries to passengers, but two crew members that fought the fire were treated for “minor smoke inhalation.”
An image of the aftermath shows one wing of the funnel heavily damaged after the flames were put out:
If the sight of a Carnival funnel on fire looks familiar, well, it is a bit of deja vu. The same exact ship had its funnel catch fire in 2022 while in Grand Turk.
At that time the funnel was damaged so heavily the cruise line had to cancel its cruises for two weeks for repairs
Freedom then returned with a new streamlined funnel without the famous “wings.” Only later when the ship was in drydock was it then replaced with the regular Carnival-style winged funnel.
No word yet on if Freedom will see any canceled cruises from this incident. The ship was planned to be at sea today before returning to Port Canaveral Monday morning. It is now headed to Freeport, The Bahamas.
