The Caribbean Fantasy is operated by America Cruise Ferries and offers 12-hour overnight trips between San Domingo in the Dominican Republic and San Juan, Puerto Rico. All passengers and crewmembers were evacuated from the ship and taken to San Juan port where emergency service personnel received them for medical evaluations.
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Officials with American Cruise Ferries, which operates the ship, did not return messages for comment about the fire.
In March 2015, federal law enforcement found $46,000 worth of heroin hidden in a van on a Caribbean Fantasy ferry traveling from the Dominican Republic.
“There is probably dehydration and nervous shock, but we can confirm that almost 500 people are all on the way to port”.
The fire, which was reported at 0740 EDT, “began in the engine room of the ship and is spreading to other compartments on board”, the Coast Guard said.
A passenger from the Caribbean Fantasy is carried on a stretcher after being rescued from the ship that was burning about two miles off of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Aug. 17, 2016.
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. Police officer Aurelis Colon said in a phone interview that the ship has since docked safely in Puerto Rico. The Caribbean Fantasy underwent a routine inspection recently and no mechanical problems were found, the Coast Guards spokesman in San Juan, Ricardo Castrodad, said.
The injured were followed by a small group of children who held hands as they disembarked from Coast Guard boats.
“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.
“I feel nervous”, she said, her hands trembling. “I was in the restaurant when I saw the smoke”.
Anguished relatives of passengers, including Hilda Pereira, pushed their way onto the scene. Her daughter, whom she has not seen for 14 years, was aboard the boat. “She said, ‘You need to be strong”.
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A mechanical fault could be to blame for the fire, according to Primahora.com, which broke out as the ferry was making its into San Juan.
