BALTIMORE – A fire broke out aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship en route to the Bahamas early Monday, but the ship arrived in Freeport with no injuries reported.
Mark J. Ormesher said in an email Monday that a Grandeur of the Seas crew member woke him and his girlfriend, told them to grab a floatation device and said it wasn’t a drill. Ormesher said he smelled smoke.
The British-born Ormesher posted about the event on Facebook and emailed details to The Associated Press. The damage at the rear of the ship “looks bad,” Ormesher said. Burned-out equipment was visible.
Royal Caribbean said the fire occurred on the mooring area of deck 3 early Monday and was quickly extinguished. Royal Caribbean said all 2,224 guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for.
A cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known.
The ship had sailed from the U.S. on Friday. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet that it will join the U.S. Coast Guard in investigating the fire.
Royal Caribbean International president and CEO Adam Goldstein met with passengers in Freeport.
Carnival Corp. also had trouble with fire aboard another ship earlier this year. The Triumph was disabled during a February cruise by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages while the ship was towed shore in the U.S.
The Grandeur of the Seas will stay docked in Freeport overnight. Royal Caribbean said in a statement on its website that most public areas and staterooms are safe and power, propulsion and communications systems functioned without interruption.
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