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Passengers aboard carnival cruise ship that caught fire return to port canaveral, cruise line sends separate ship to bring passengers back to florida.

Mark Lehman , Reporter

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. – Passengers of a Carnival cruise ship that caught fire last week returned Monday to Port Canaveral on a different ship.

The Carnival Freedom was docked Thursday in Grand Turk when flames erupted from the smokestack, according to the cruise line.

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No one was injured in the fire, which caused heavy damage to the ship’s funnel.

The Carnival Conquest was sent to retrieve the passengers aboard Freedom, which was evacuated after the fire.

Matt Lupoli, Carnival Cruise Line’s senior manager of public relations, released a statement on Thursday.

“Carnival Freedom’s emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship’s funnel while the ship was in Grand Turk,” Lupoli said. “All guests and crew are safe, and the ship’s guests were cleared by local authorities to go ashore. We continue to assess the situation. Carnival Freedom left Port Canaveral on Monday on a five-day cruise.”

Pictures posted last week on Twitter show smoke and flames coming from the right fin of Freedom’s smokestack.

The ship was due to return to Port Canaveral on Saturday.

On Friday, Carnival said the May 28, June 2 and June 6 departures of the Carnival Freedom have been canceled.

After bringing passengers to Port Canaveral, Carnival Conquest will return to Miami and its departure will be delayed by one day to May 31, the cruise line said.

Carnival is giving passengers a $100 onboard credit, extending the beverage and Wi-Fi packages for those who bought them, and giving everyone a 50% future cruise credit. The company says it will also waive additional port parking fees and reimburse for independent air expenses up to $200 per person.

HAPPENING NOW: The Carnival Conquest is docking at Port Canaveral. Onboard are thousands of passengers who were on the Carnival Freedom when the ship’s funnel caught fire. pic.twitter.com/yGWaKhijfA — Mark Lehman (@MarkLehman6) May 30, 2022

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Mark Lehman became a News 6 reporter in July 2014, but he's been a Central Florida journalist and part of the News 6 team for much longer. While most people are fast asleep in their bed, Mark starts his day overnight by searching for news on the streets of Central Florida.

Carnival cruise ship catches fire in Grand Turk

A Carnival cruise ship caught fire as it was docked in Grand Turk on Thursday morning, officials said. 

The fire, which broke out in the Carnival Freedom ship's funnel, was quickly extinguished as the ship was in Grand Turk, the capital island of the Turks and Caicos archipelago southeast of the Bahamas, a Carnival spokesperson said Thursday morning.

"All guests and crew are safe, and the ship’s guests were cleared by local authorities to go ashore. We continue to assess the situation," a spokesperson said in a statement about the fire at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

Just before 11 a.m., passengers were still on shore at Grand Turk.

The ship had left Port Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, on Monday for a five-day cruise, officials said.

It's not yet clear what caused the fire.

According to the marine tracking site CruiseMapper , the ship, which was built in 2007, is 948 feet long and can accommodate over 3,500 passengers. 

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Fire and smoke shoot out of cruise ship’s funnel

‘a piece of the funnel fell from the the top deck while smoke and ash flew in the wind,’ said eyewitness, article bookmarked.

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Dramatic flames and thick black smoke engulfed the funnel of a Carnival Cruise ship on Thursday, after the vessel caught fire while docked in the Turks and Caicos islands.

The 110,000-tonne Carnival Freedom caught alight while docked in Grand Turk yesterday morning, with hundreds of holidaymakers watching as fire and smoke shot from the vessel.

The ship was docked alongside the cruise line’s Mardi Gras ship, with passengers across the water taking photos and video of the scene.

Twitter user Brian H described the incident, saying: “Shortly after the Carnival Freedom arrived in Port next to us on the Mardi Gras, smoke and flames began to shoot out of the exhaust funnel.

“The crew quickly started to battle the fire to extinguish it. A partial piece of the funnel fell [from] the the top deck while smoke and ash flew in the wind.

“Luckily the wind was blowing away from our ship. The crew did a great job as it appears the fire did not spread any further than where it was.”

Meanwhile, Freedom passenger Jen reported: “A little bit of the panic on the boat as we had to put on life jackets and go to muster areas.”

The Carnival Freedom had left Port Canaveral in Florida for a five-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Monday, and is scheduled to return to the port on Saturday.

It had scheduled stops of the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos before returning to the departure point.

In a statement, Carnival Cruise Line said that “an emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship’s funnel while the ship was in Grand Turk.”

The company added: “All guests and crew are safe, and the ship’s guests were cleared by local authorities to go ashore. We continue to assess the situation”.

A printed letter issued to guests onboard and posted to Twitter said that a technical team would be boarding on Thursday afternoon to assess the damage, and that the Freedom’s sister ship, Carnival Conquest, was being sent to retrieve passengers and return them to Florida.

It added that guests would board the new ship on Saturday evening and set sail for the US coast, arriving on Monday morning.

It assured those who had bought wifi or drinks packages that they would have their package extended on the replacement ship and said that each stateroom would be credited $100 to spend onboard.

The Freedom is 290m long with a capacity for more than 3,000 passengers. Later in the day, Carnival shared photos of the ship sailing as normal.

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Cruise ship catches fire in Florida port

A stack fire broke out on the Victory Casino cruise ship amid stormy weather in Brevard County Thursday afternoon, officials said.

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Carnival cruise ship that set sail from Florida catches fire in Grand Turk

By Caitlin O'Kane

Updated on: May 26, 2022 / 5:39 PM EDT / CBS News

A Carnival cruise ship that set sail from Port Canaveral in Florida caught fire on Thursday. The Carnival Freedom ship was in Grand Turk on a five-day cruise when a fire inside the ships funnel started, according to a press release from Carnival.

Carnival says the fire was quickly extinguished by emergency response teams, and that all guests and crew are safe. The ship's guests were cleared by local authorities to go ashore. Carnival is continuing to assess the situation. 

The @Carnival Freedom is on fire in Port at #GrandTurk #Carnival pic.twitter.com/7GgoWLG2Tc — Brian H (@Budman922) May 26, 2022

Social media posts show flames spewing from the funnel of the ship and black smoke billowing in the air. 

The ship had 2,504 guests and 972 crew onboard, Carnival said. Another ship, the Carnival Conquest, will travel from Miami to pick everyone up from Grand Turk on Saturday. They are expected to arrive in Port Canaveral on Monday.

The Conquest's next trip, scheduled to depart from Miami on Friday, has been canceled, as was the Freedom's next trip, scheduled to begin Saturday.

The Freedom ship will be taken to Freeport for a "repair to the funnel," Carnival said. All guests impacted by the changes in upcoming trips have been notified.

Last month, passengers on a Carnival cruise from Miami to Seattle were forced to quarantine after people onboard tested positive for COVID-19. Carnival didn't say how many of the approximately 2,100 passengers aboard were infected. Upon docking, all infected passengers were moved to area hotels for isolation.

While cruise ship fires are not common, they have occurred before. In 2016, more than 500 passengers and crew were evacuated from a burning ship about a mile off Puerto Rico's north coast. Many aboard the Caribbean Fantasy ship required medical care, though there were no reported fatalities.

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Caitlin O'Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift .

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Video shows scary moments after a cruise ship caught fire

Passengers aboard a cruise ship docked in Grand Turk Island got a surprise that wasn’t on the itinerary Thursday.

As photos and video taken aboard the Carnival Freedom illustrate, black smoke and flames poured out of the ship’s funnel as passengers donned life jackets and were evacuated from the vessel’s upper decks.  

"On Thursday morning while in port at Grand Turk, Carnival Freedom’s emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship’s funnel," said the cruise line in a statement . "All guests and crew are safe, and all other ship, hotel, and guest services, along with safety equipment are fully functioning."

According to the statement, most of the ship's 2,504 passengers were ashore at the time the fire broke out.

Plans were soon made to get all guests back to Port Canaveral in Florida, where they originally set sail from Monday for what was meant to be a 5-day cruise. But since Freedom won't be seaworthy in time for an already delayed departure, those arrangements required the cancellation of another Carnival cruise.

"Carnival Conquest’s next cruise, departing May 27 from Miami has been cancelled and that ship will be deployed to Grand Turk to transport Freedom guests back to Port Canaveral," the company explained. "Carnival Conquest will arrive to Grand Turk on Saturday, May 28 and guests aboard Carnival Freedom will transfer to Carnival Conquest for the voyage back to Port Canaveral, arriving on Monday, May 30."

Carnival Freedom's next scheduled cruise, originally planned for Saturday, has also been cancelled.

Repairs are set to begin on the ship's funnel after all passengers are off the ship.

The statement closed, noting, "Carnival apologized to all those guests who are impacted and offered special thanks to the crew who handled the situation on the ship effectively and according to safety protocols."

It remains unclear what caused the fire.

Ree Hines is a freelance writer and editor who covers pop culture, lifestyle stories and trending news. She’s also a soul-music loving, coffee-obsessed member of both Team Cat and Team Dog. Ree lives in Tampa, Florida, and is a regular contributor to TODAY.com.

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

Carnival ship catches fire, leaving passengers awaiting rescue cruise

Carnival freedom’s signature red, white and blue funnel was ablaze thursday.

A Carnival Cruise Line ship caught fire Thursday morning while docked in Grand Turk, leaving passengers stuck on the boat until another arrives on a rescue mission this weekend.

Carnival Freedom, which left Central Florida’s Port Canaveral on Monday for a five-day voyage, was in the Turks and Caicos cruise when the fire started in the ship’s signature red, white and blue funnel, which is shaped like a whale’s tail.

Carnival cruise on fire sheesh #carnivalfreedom #shiponfire #shipdown pic.twitter.com/n00l0HaFUV — That Panda Guy (@SantaPanda39) May 26, 2022

Passengers on other ships started posting photos and videos after 8 a.m. Carnival released a statement at 8:45 a.m. saying the ship’s emergency response team “quickly activated and extinguished a fire.” The Miami-based operator said everyone onboard — 2,504 guests and 972 crew — was safe. Passengers were allowed to leave the ship to spend the day in Grand Turk.

The cause of the blaze was not clear, and the cruise line did not say how much damage was caused.

But Carnival said in a statement Thursday afternoon that “all other ship, hotel, and guest services, along with safety equipment are fully functioning.” After an initial assessment of the damage, the company said the ship will go to Freeport, Bahamas, for repairs.

The blaze and its aftermath were a far cry from the infamous 2013 fire on the Carnival Triumph , which started in the engine room while the ship was at sea. In that case, the ship lost power and drifted. It became known as the “poop cruise” because of the waste disposal issues that result when a vessel with thousands of people onboard loses power.

#carnivalfreedom 👀 Not a way to wake up this morning at port aboard the #carnivalmardigras pic.twitter.com/aY0TPjfXvj — Justin Reavis (@reavis_justin88) May 26, 2022

The next Carnival Freedom cruise, scheduled for Saturday from Port Canaveral, has been canceled. Passengers will stay onboard while a sister ship, the Carnival Conquest, makes its way to Grand Turk from Miami to pick up passengers and bring them back to Port Canaveral on Monday. The next trip for that ship, scheduled to leave Friday, has also been canceled. The next Conquest voyage, which was intended to leave Miami on Monday, will instead depart Tuesday.

“Carnival apologized to all those guests who are impacted and offered special thanks to the crew who handled the situation on the ship effectively and according to safety protocols,” the company’s statement said.

The Freedom passengers’ situation is reminiscent of the experience guests had on the Norwegian Escape in March. In that incident, the ship ran aground and passengers ended up being flown home under sometimes-chaotic circumstances days later. Many who were stuck on land awaiting flights watched the ship depart without them.

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