Coast Guard and emergency services personnel are working to bring passengers ashore, with the operation visible from the port of San Juan due to the vessel’s proximity to land.
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More than 500 passengers and crew have been evacuated from a cruise ship after it caught fire in the Caribbean.
The Coast Guard said the ship grounded at approximately 10:21 a.m. There have been no reports of injuries.
The captain and crew remained on board the vessel despite an active engine room fire, Puerto Rico’s fire chief Angel Crespo said.
Several dozen people who were carried in on stretchers and were being treated for dehydration and shock.
Gyno Funes told The Associated Press he was one of two mechanics in the control room when a hose carrying fuel burst open and caught on fire.
As of yet, it is unclear what caused the fire.
“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.
Nestor Cidras, the ferry line’s vice-president for sales and marketing, said the Caribbean Fantasy had left Santo Domingo late Tuesday and was supposed to have arrived in San Juan at 8am.
Video shared on social media showed ferry passengers strapped in bright orange life jackets as they prepared to disembark and smoke billowed from the ship.
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A Unified Command comprised of federal, state and industry agencies and organizations has been established at Coast Guard Sector San Juan to manage the incident and salvage efforts of the Caribbean Fantasy. The Coast Guard was notified at around 7:42 local time that there was a fire onboard.
