Carnival Cruise Line suffers fire on one ship and damage to another in Panama Canal

It’s been a bad weekend for Carnival Cruise Line with two separate incidents reported aboard Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Legend.

Carnival Fantasy on Friday was damaged when she came into contact with a lock wall while transiting the Panama Canal, and on the same day Carnival Legend suffered an engine room fire.

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A statement from Carnival Cruise Line confirmed that its ship Carnival Fantasy on Friday came into contact with one of the locks of the Panama Canal while the water levels were being lowered.

Carnival Fantasy was under the authority of a pilot with the Panama Canal at the time of the incident and was being assisted by the Panama Canal train.

According to a report by NBC 15 News, the damage was limited to areas of the Lido buffet and adults-only Serenity area located on decks 9 and 10 aft. There were reports of broken glass and bent handrails.

Carnival says the seaworthiness of the vessel was not affected and she will continue her cruise as planned.

Carnival Fantasy is sailing a 10-day Panama Canal cruise which departed Mobile, Alabama on September 16^th. She’ll visit Puerto Limon, Roatan Island and Cozumel before arriving back at her homeport on September 26^th.

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Carnival Legend meanwhile called its fire crews to action on Friday morning due to a fire in the engine room.

According to a passenger on the ship, who posted a message to Carnival Cruise Line Ambassador John Heald on his popular Facebook page, the captain scrambled the crew over the PA at around 7am.

Several announcements were made throughout the morning, until the captain reported that the fire had been extinguished. This version of events was supported by additional reports of the fire on Crew-Centre.com.

Carnival Legend is sailing a 9-day cruise in Alaska from Vancouver, Canada. The ship departed her homeport on September 17^th and is scheduled to arrive back as normal on September 26^th.

It’s unclear if the engine room fire will affect her future itineraries. Fires are considered the greatest threat to safety aboard any ship, which is why cruise lines train and mobilise a specialized fire-fighting team in the event of a fire.

The engine room is also the most common place a fire will occur at sea, although according to a study by Gdynia Maritime University, over the course of 13 years a fire was reported aboard just 73 out of 6,000 merchant vessels studied.