Carnival Cruise Ship Popular with Louisiana Guests Catches Fire

If you just looked at a spreadsheet you could do the math and figure out that people in Louisiana love to sail on cruise ships. Louisiana's cruise port is the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana. It's the embarkation point for several ocean-going vessels including a couple of ships that sail under the Carnival Cruise Lines banner.

And while the current Carnival cruise ships that are "home port" at New Orleans, namely the Glory and the Valor were not involved in this incendiary incident a sister shop to those two that has a history with Louisiana guests was.

This past weekend the Carnival Freedom was near the Bahamas when guests noticed smoke, or we should say, more smoke than usual coming out of the ship's exhaust funnel. A passenger on board the Carnival Freedom offered these videos and pictures from the incident via his social media.

According to reports, the cause of the blaze is believed to be a lightning strike. The vessel's funnel was reportedly struck during a storm while the Freedom was in port in the Bahamas. It took crews about two hours to bring the fire under control. No guests were injured but two Carnival crew members were treated for smoke inhalation.

Following the blaze, the vessel was allowed to continue on its journey. It's the second fire the Freedom has experienced in the past couple of years. The ship's funnel also caught fire while on a cruise in 2022 while it was docked in Grand Turk. Perhaps Carnival engineers should examine the funnel and its systems because a fire at sea is one of the most frightening travel disasters I can think of. They need to fix that.

The Freedom was heading into Port Canaveral Florida this morning. It is expected to embark on a five-day itinerary to the islands of the Eastern Caribbean on Tuesday.