A fire broke out aboard the Carnival Freedom cruise ship about 20 miles away from Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, on March 23, the cruise line announced. Courtesy: @breezebreeze_ via Storyful
The Carnival Freedom cruise ship experienced its second fire in less than two years, and passenger footage caught the flames with smoke coming from the ship’s exhaust funnel Saturday afternoon.
“That’s nutty,” X user @breezebreeze_ can be heard while showing the fire aboard the ship.
Carnival Cruise Line put out several tweet replies regarding the incident they say happened at 3:15 ET.
“Carnival Freedom reported a fire on the port side of the ship’s exhaust funnel,” one of the posts read. “The ship was 20 miles off Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, heading to Freeport after a canceled call to Princess Cay due to weather.”
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Carnival Freedom reported a fire on the port side of the ship’s exhaust funnel March 23, 2024. (@breezebreeze_ via Storyful / Fox News)
The news prompted passengers of the ship’s upcoming departure from Port Canaveral on Monday to ask the cruise line if their itinerary would go off as planned.
“Is the cruise for the Carnival Freedom March 25 departing cruise from Port Canaveral still planning on going?” one X user asked Carnival. “We need to know for travel purposes!”
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The Carnival Freedom, shown in Italy in 2007, caught fire in the Caribbean on Saturday, March 23, for the second time in less than two years. (Victor Sokolowicz/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“I can almost guarantee it’ll be canceled,” another X user wrote about the ship’s next planned cruise. “This isn’t the first time this has happened ironically to this ship, and the following sailing when it happened that time were canceled, but obviously not confirm[ed].”
Carnival quickly responded to quell any rumors, saying it does not expect any impact on the next Carnival Freedom voyage.
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Passengers board the Carnival Freedom in February 2013 in Key West, Fla. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images / Reuters)
The Freedom’s exhaust funnel caught fire in May 2022 while the ship was docked at Grand Turk Island in Turks and Caicos. Video from then also showed the ship’s funnel – referred to by some as the whale tail – consumed by flames and smoke.
The part of the ship that caught fire is designed to help direct the flow of exhaust gases away from the ship, according to the Crown Cruise Vacations website.
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The Carnival Freedom was docking at Grand Turk Island Thursday morning when the fire erupted. The response team quickly extinguished the fire inside the ship’s funnel. (Daniel Avellaneda / Bon Voyaged / TMX)
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“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,” Carnival said about Saturday’s fire. “Eyewitnesses reported the possibility of a lightning strike and that is being investigated.”
Carnival said the captain made “multiple announcements to guests and crew” about the fire. The port side of the funnel fell onto Deck 10, Carnival said. No injuries were reported.
The Carnival Freedom was in Freeport as scheduled Sunday, according to CruiseMapper. Carnival said there are no operational issues with the ship’s systems.
Fox Business’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.
