Carnival sending replacement cruise ship after Freedom caught fire in Grand Turk

Flames erupted from the smokestack of a Carnival cruise ship as it was docking Thursday morning in Grand Turk, according to the cruise line.

Now Carnival is sending another cruise ship to pick up stranded passengers and bring them back to Port Canaveral, which means a delay in getting home.

News 6 reached out to Carnival Cruise Line for comment and the following statement was released:

“Carnival Freedom’s emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship’s funnel while the ship was in Grand Turk. 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.”

Matt Lupoli, Senior Manager of Public Relations, Carnival Cruise Line

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Pictures posted to Twitter show smoke and flames coming from the right fin of the ship’s smokestack.

See video of the fire in the player below:

One poster identified the ship as the Carnival Freedom. The company later confirmed that Freedom caught fire.

Records show that ship departed from Port Canaveral on May 23. The ship was due to return to the port on Saturday, May 28.

On Thursday Carnival sent a letter to guests onboard the Freedom, notifying them that the ship would have to make repairs in Grand Bahama and would not return to Port Canaveral.

“In order to get you home as soon as possible, we have made arrangements to send Carnival Conquest to Grand Turk to sail back to Port Canaveral,” Carnival said.

Conquest is Freedom’s sister ship. Carnival says that once everyone is brought on board, the ship will sail Saturday evening and arrive at Port Canaveral on Monday.

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.