Carnival ends cruise early after ship fire, A cruise ship fire has put quite a damper on things for passengers stranded in St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Of course, if there’s one place to be stranded, that would be high on anyone’s list.
The Carnival Liberty ship caught on fire Monday while docked in St. Thomas, ABC News reports. The cruise ship fire caused the vessel to be evacuated. Flames were put out by the ship’s automatic sprinkler system. By evening, passengers were allowed to board again. In all, the ordeal lasted an extra day, and no one was injured.
Due to the inconvenience and unexpected delay in the scheduled cruise, Carnival Cruise Lines reportedly provided free shuttle service to destinations on St. Thomas and gave passengers a $150 shipboard credit. Liberty was in the middle of a 7-day Caribbean cruise with 3,346 people aboard. A crew of 1,150 were also working. The ship departed San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday and was one day into the week-long journey when the fire started.
The cruise line adds that several experts were working to assess the engine while the ship was docked in St. Thomas on Tuesday.
Reuters reports via MSN that passengers were evacuated when thick black smoke was rising from the ship while it was docked in St. Thomas. Crew members distributed water and snacks to passengers at port during the cruise ship fire.
The U.S. Coast Guard released a statement saying that marine safety experts were on the scene to help in the investigation after the ship fire broke out.
At this point in the investigation, the cruise line hasn’t informed passengers much about what the rest of the itinerary is going to look like for the remainder of the week.
As Reuters wrote, a number of cruise ship fires have happened aboard ships within the last several years. In 2013, another Carnival ship, Triumph, had an engine room fire that created havoc for 4,000 passengers as power and sanitation weren’t available while sailing on the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few months later that a Royal Caribbean cruise ship caught fire as well and had to dock in Freeport, Bahamas.
Another engine fire was on the Carnival Splendor in 2010, damaging its propulsion system and knocking out most of its power while on the Pacific coast of Mexico.
It’s yet to be determined what resulted in the Liberty cruise ship fire.