Carnival Cruise Line has confirmed one of its ships suffered a fire onboard while cruising off the Bahamas in stormy weather.

Carnival Freedom reported the fire to the US Coast Guard on Saturday afternoon while sailing from Princess Cay to Freeport in the Bahamas.

The call at Princess Cay had been cancelled due to the weather conditions on Saturday, and at 3pm the ship reported the fire.

Unconfirmed eyewitness reports posted to social media said the fire was due to a lightning strike, but this has not been confirmed by Carnival.

Video posted from passengers aboard showed the portside of Carnival Freedom’s whale-tail funnel on fire, and the cruise line said part of the funnel later fell onto the open deck.

Carnival activated the company’s response team to support the ship’s crew, who were able to bring the fire under control without injury to any crew or passengers.

Carnival Freedom remains seaworthy and the fire is not expected to impact future sailings.

“There are no operational issues with the ship’s systems and the ship is expected to arrive to Freeport on Sunday morning,” Carnival said in a statement posted on social media.

“The captain has made multiple announcements to guests and crew and advised all but essential safety personnel to stay away from all open decks,” it added. 

“There are no injuries. The port side portion of the funnel has fallen onto Deck 10 and the fire response is putting out the flames.”

Carnival Freedom is scheduled to depart from Port Canaveral on Monday, March 25th.

The same ship had a funnel fire in 2022, and Carnival later had to replace the funnel at a drydock in Spain late last year.

Onboard fires are considered one of the gravest threats to any ship at sea. 

The Star Lauro (later MSC Cruises) ship Achille Lauro was lost at sea on December 2nd 1994 while sailing to South Africa, and Carnival Triumph in 2013 was stranded at sea after an engine room fire knocked out all power.

Onboard ship fires affecting passengers are rare, with 72 fires reported on cruise ships between 1990 and 2011.