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A cruise ship in the Caribbean caught fire after witnesses reported it was struck by lightning during a storm.
Black plumes of smoke and fire could be seen billowing from the ship’s exhaust funnel in a video of the Carnival Freedom cruise ship near The Bahamas on Saturday.
It was about 20 miles off Eleuthera Island when the fire broke out as it was heading to Freeport.
Heath Barnes was relaxing reading his book between bouts of rain when suddenly he ‘heard the loudest thunder and lightning ever’.
He went back inside the cabin and learnt the ship was on fire from his nephew and their two friends.
During the video, someone can be heard saying: ‘Holy crap, why is our tail on fire? That’s not good y’all.
‘Omg this is pretty wild.’
The blaze broke out at 3.15pm local time, according to Carnival Cruise Line.
The ship’s exhaust funnel caught fire for two hours before it was extinguished (Picture: Heath Barnes/ LOCAL NEWS X/SWNS)
Carnival has confirmed an investigation into the cause of the fire continues (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Heath said: ‘I thought they were giving me a hard time, but I got up and went out on the balcony and sure enough, the flames and smoke were pouring out of the tail.
‘This was the most interesting one. It’s not their fault, it’s Mother Nature.’
In the video, an announcer in the cruise ship can be heard saying: ‘You might have noticed that we turned the vessel towards the heavy rain in the area to maximise 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.
‘This situation has not impacted any operational system on the ship and we will continue to update you as we know more.’
There were no reported injuries to guests on the ship but two firefighting crew members were treated for minor smoke inhalation.
As a result of the fire the exhaust funnel fell onto the deck but passengers were able to attend dinner as planned in the evening.
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Carnival confirmed it had completed an assessment and found the damage was worse than initially thought.
Other trips scheduled to depart from Port Canaveral, Florida, have now been cancelled to allow ‘immediate repair to stabilise the funnel’.
Carnival said in a statement: ‘The funnel has been stabilised for the ship’s return to Port Canaveral overnight to disembark guests, and then it will go to the Freeport shipyard on Monday afternoon to begin the required repairs.’
Full refunds for customers on cancelled cruises have been issued.
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