Carnival said there are no reports of injuries to passengers. Two firefighting crew members were treated for minor smoke inhalation.
Carnival said the fire, which was confined to the funnel area, is not expected to affect the ship’s next scheduled sailing out of Port Canaveral on Monday.
In a statement provided to FLORIDA TODAY, part of the USA TODAY Network, Carnival said that, at about 3:15 p.m. Saturday, the Carnival Freedom reported a fire on the port side of the ship’s exhaust funnel. The ship was 20 miles off Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, heading to Freeport after a canceled call to the Carnival private island of Princess Cay due to adverse weather.
“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,” the statement said. “Eyewitnesses reported the possibility of a lightning strike, and that is being investigated, but cannot yet be confirmed.”
By 5:20 p.m. Saturday, the fire was extinguished.
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Carnival said the ship’s captain made multiple announcements to passengers and crew, and advised all but essential safety personnel to stay away from balconies and all open decks.
The port-side portion of the funnel had fallen onto Deck 10, and the firefighting response put out any flames.
The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified of the fire, and Carnival activated its incident response team to support the ship’s crew.
Carnival said there are no operational issues with the ship’s systems, and the ship, which was on a four-night cruise, was visiting Freeport on Sunday.
A cruise ship funnel generally serves as a smokestack to lift emissions above the deck, thus away from passengers and crew.
On Saturday evening, “Carnival Freedom guests enjoyed the Elegant Night dinner as planned, and, with the exception of the open decks, all areas of the ship are fully functioning,” Carnival said in its statement.
Carnival said it does not expect any impact to the next Carnival Freedom voyage, scheduled to depart from Port Canaveral on Monday afternoon on a five-night cruise.
In May 2022, a fire broke out in the funnel area of the Carnival Freedom while it was docked in Grand Turk, which is part of Turks and Caicos.
In October 2023, the Carnival Freedom debuted a new iconic winged funnel after returning from a 16-day dry dock refurbishment in Cadiz, Spain.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Carnival Freedom fire: Exhaust funnel emits flames near Bahamas