Cruise Ship Catches Fire: Royal Caribbean Passengers Safe After Incident In Jamaica

Reports indicate that a Royal Caribbean cruise ship caught fire in Jamaica on Wednesday. The incident happened on the Freedom of the Seas ship as it was pulling into the Falmouth port. Luckily, there seem to be no reports of serious injuries at this point.

According to WESH, the cruise ship caught fire Wednesday morning. The fire is believed to have started in a mechanical space and the fire suppression system for the vessel was activated quickly. The fire apparently did not spread, but photos posted on social media indicate that there was quite a bit of smoke.

The Freedom of the Seas ship is in the midst of a seven-night cruise that left Cape Canaveral, Florida this past Sunday. Based on the itineraries available on the Royal Caribbean website, it would seem that this cruise route hits Labadee, Haiti before heading to Falmouth, Jamaica. The ship then heads to George Town, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico before heading back to Florida.

This ship can carry more than 3,600 passengers and 1,360 crew members. However, it has not been detailed how many passengers the ship was carrying on this particular cruise.

Photos shared online show passengers gathered at evacuation assembly stations, and the Orlando Sentinel reports that the ship says they did this simply in an abundance of caution. Passengers were never evacuated off the ship and no passenger injuries were reported.

At this point, Royal Caribbean says that the cruise ship fire is out and that all systems are operating normally. One crew member was treated for a first-degree burn, the company reports. Fox News shares a report from passenger Jayne Giesler who says that the ship made an announcement about the fire and requested that passengers head to the assembly stations at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Passengers were told to get their life preservers and it seems everybody was told that the fire had started in a deck 0 engine. As passengers gathered they saw debris and dark smoke, but from the sounds of things everybody stayed calm and collected throughout the cruise ship fire ordeal. After the fire was extinguished and a head count was done, passengers were allowed to head back to their staterooms.

The Cruise Law News shared a video taken by someone near the Falmouth dock as the Freedom of the Seas pulled into port, smoke billowing from the ship. Royal Caribbean has shared that the current cruise will continue along its scheduled itinerary, heading to Grand Cayman on Thursday.

Royal Caribbean has made its fair share of headlines over the past few years. Luckily, this incident with the cruise ship catching fire was quickly managed and no Freedom of the Seas passengers or crew members were gravely injured.

[Image via The Jamaican Blogs’ Twitter]