Fire-damaged Carnival ship to return to service

The Carnival cruise ship that was stuck in St. Thomas this week after an engine room fire will resume regular sailings on Sunday.

Carnival said the Carnival Liberty has been cleared to sail by all necessary authorities including the U.S. Coast Guard.

The 10-year-old vessel returned to its home port of San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday morning and will remain there until Sunday when its next voyage will begin as scheduled.

Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz told Paste BN the fire caused damage to an aft engine room, but it was "isolated to a specific area" and shouldn't result in delays during the coming voyage. The itinerary for the seven-night trip to the Southern Caribbean lists calls in St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

"We anticipate that the next voyage and subsequent ones will follow the normal itinerary," she said.

De la Cruz said there is no word yet on the cause of the blaze.

No one was injured by the fire, which erupted Monday morning while the ship was docked in St. Thomas. It was extinguished by the Carnival Liberty's automated fire suppression system, the line said.

In the wake of the fire, Carnival ended this week's cruise early and flew many of the ship's 3,346 passengers home from St. Thomas. Some passengers returned with the ship to San Juan. Carnival said it would issue full refunds to passengers for the shortened voyage as well as a 50% discount on a future cruise.

The fire is the second in three months on a large cruise ship sailing in the Caribbean. A July fire on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas as it sailed into Falmouth, Jamaica left one crew member injured.

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