Cruise ship exhaust burst into flames with Wiregrass family aboard [Video]

FREEPORT, BAHAMAS (WDHN) — A Geneva County family had a scare over the weekend after the exhaust funnel of the Carnival Freedom caught fire near the Bahamas Saturday afternoon.

The fire was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard at 3:15 p.m.

Paul Dickerson, a deputy with the Geneva County Sheriff’s Office, told WDHN he, his wife, and daughter were on board the Carnival Freedom when the ship caught fire.

Dickerson said the fire occurred during a severe thunderstorm.

“It was wild and crazy, to say the least, during all this,” said Dickerson.

After the fire, Carnival Cruises released a statement stating that eyewitnesses reported the fire was caused by a possible lightning strike. A portion of the exhaust funnel on the port side fell onto the ship’s tenth deck.

The ship was about 20 miles from Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, heading to Freeport. Dickerson said the vessel had diverted to Freeport because of the weather. The ship was initially meant to dock at Princess Cays that …