A couple has recalled the terrifying moment they saw lightning strike a Carnival cruise ship and catch it on fire during a weekend trip to the Caribbean.
Florence Torchia witnessed a bolt strike the Carnival Freedom ship during a thunderstorm Saturday, 32 miles off the coast of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas.
A short time later, the crew reported a fire in the ship’s exhaust funnel. the couple told Fox Weather.
“Oh my god, this isn’t good,” Joe recalled them saying as they watched the fire on TV. “They had [camera] setting. ”
Crews quickly responded to the fire, but the couple said the hoses “couldn’t reach the funnel.”
After the captain’s announcement, the Torchias tried to go to the meeting point, but while searching for their parents, they encountered “crying children.”
“It was scary,” Joe said.
The exhaust stack would eventually fall onto deck 10, spewing smoke “into the cabin and everywhere,” Florence said.
Despite the emergency, the couple said the cruise line’s communication was “pretty good” and “kept us informed of everything.”
But after the ordeal, the third-time cruisers said this trip “could be the last.”
“I want to go to the Caribbean, but there is only one destination,” Florence said.
A Carnival spokesperson told Fox Weather that after the ship was able to dock in Freeport a day later, the onboard team conducted a “thorough assessment” and is still investigating reports of sightings.
The boat was able to return to Port Canaveral, Florida, on Monday.
The cruise line confirmed to the press that the damage was “more extensive than originally thought” and immediate repairs were needed to stabilize the damaged funnel.
Cruises departing from Port Canaveral on March 25th and 29th have been cancelled. Customers who took these trips received refunds.
This is the second time in two years that a fire has broken out in the funnel of the Freedom cruise ship, the last time being in May 2022.
