Twenty four passengers were hospitalised after the blaze on the Caribbean Fantasy cruise ferry ship forced the evacuation of 500 passengers and crew off the coast of Puerto Rico.
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American Cruise Ferries operates the Panamanian-flagged ship built in 1989. Passenger Giovani Cesar, a Dominican who was traveling to Puerto Rico for a cycling race, told EFE on the pier that there was chaos on the ship and the crew did not know how to respond to the emergency. “You’re in the middle of the ocean and there’s a fire”.
No injuries have been reported and no one is missing, Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad said in a phone interview.
“We were trying to extinguish it for two hours, but couldn’t”, said the other mechanic, Marlon Doblado, after the two reached shore.
On the docks, several dozen people were carried in on stretchers, one of which held a man hooked to an IV line who was cradling a bawling baby clad only in a nappy.
The EPA said Superior-Angran bought two pesticides containing methyl bromide and then sold them to applicators in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands without certifying they would be used only in quarantine and pre-shipment applications as required by law. Passengers were still arriving more than five hours after the fire was reported.
“Some of them passed out”, she recalled as she and other passengers sat barefoot near the San Juan harbor waiting for a bus to take them to the ship’s original destination.
“The perimeter will be guarded, but unfortunately there is nothing more to be done with the vessel”, said San Juan fire chief Angel Crespo.
No major faults were recorded during its most recent inspection but the agency recommended in 2015 fuel lines be protected to avoid any leakage near ignition sources.
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Officials with Puerto Rico’s Natural Resources Department said that as a precaution, they removed two large manatees from the area that had been recently released into the wild. “I was in the restaurant when I saw the smoke”. Her daughter, whom she has not seen for 14 years, was aboard the boat. “She said, ‘You need to be strong”. “The ferry has caught on fire”.
