The fire broke out on deck 3 and was quickly extinguished but the damage caused Royal Caribbean to cancel the cruise bound for the Bahamas
A huge fire broke out on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship last night causing panic as 2,000 passengers abandoned their rooms and prepared to get into life boats.
The Grandeur of the Seas was forced to return to port this morning after the rear of the ship caught fire sending smoke into several hallways as passengers waited in assembly stations for over four hours.
On Monday afternoon Royal Caribbean made the startling announcement that that they were reversing a prior decision and cancelling the Grandeur of the Seas cruise when it was determined it could no longer safely take passengers to the Bahamas, its intended destination.
?It was obviously the most terrifying thing in my life,? says passenger Katie Coleman according to CBS News.
?There was panic on deck as passengers watched lifeboats being lowered into the water.?
Passenger Bang Warren was one of those passengers who had to evacuate her room as a warning horn blared over the sound system.
She described the scene chaotic to The Baltimore Sun, saying, ?A lot of people were passing out with fear.?
Bang also said she saw crew members distributing oxygen masks and life vests. She also said that, ?I know some children were vomiting.?
Photos of the ship emerged on social media showing that the entire rear of the ship was charred and destroyed.
One New Jersey cruise-goer, Jennifer Allen, told NBC 10 Philadelphia that she thought the ship was doomed and made her think of the 1997 disaster movie, ?Titanic?.
Royal Caribbean announced that the 2,224 passengers would be receiving a full refund and a gift certificate from the company.
Another passenger, Danielle Miller, 23, said that she was sound asleep and was unaware of anything untoward until the ship?s intercom asked passengers to put life jackets on.
?My first thought was that we were sinking,? said Danielle of her terror.
?I opened the door and just see people running around with life jackets on and we were being yelled at to get our life jackets on and run up to a deck that was two floors above us,? she told ABC News.
?But we didn?t know what was going on because when we were going to bed it was really stormy, so we honestly thought the boat might have been sinking. And we were just panicking and running upstairs.
?And we didn?t know for about a half hour that there was a fire two decks below where we were at.?
Miller revealed she was so nervous as the fire raged that her hands were shaking and her heart was pounding.
?A couple people fainted. People were throwing up, crying. Just anxiety attacks everywhere. I was just telling my roommate stay calm,? she said.
Nathan Pletscher spoke to ABC News to explain how he became nervous for his parents aboard the ship only after he looked at a photo tweeted by Royal Caribbean?s public relations team.
?We originally saw a news article and were a little nervous. When we made contact with my parents, they said there was a small fire. When I saw the photo on Twitter, I said, ?That was a little more than a small fire.? It?s really fortunate the crew was able to get fire under control and things of that nature,? said Pletscher, to ABC News.
Speaking to the news network, Pletscher admitted that his parents had a ?sense of panic? and had become ?obviously nervous?, but were calmed by the ships crew.
?When the alarm first went off, there as an ?uh-oh? moment,? Pletscher said. ?But they couldn?t say enough about how organized and professional both the captain and crew were. They kept everyone calm and were extremely transparent on with the whole situation.?
The Twitter account for their public relations department announced they were in the process of scheduling passengers on flights to Baltimore.
Firefighter Brian Goss (who was a passenger on the ship) told WOOD-TV that some of the cabins did experience flooding and that the hallways smelled of smoke for most of the morning.
He actually praised the efforts of the company, and said they were working tirelessly on the unfurling situation.
?Up all night in emergency mode and now serving food and drinks with smiling faces and no sleep.?
An announcement from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship that passengers needed to go their muster stations roused Mark J. Ormesher from his stateroom on the Grandeur of the Seas early Monday. A fire had broken out.
Ormesher said in an email to The Associated Press that immediately after the captain?s announcement, his room attendant knocked on the door and told him and his girlfriend to grab their flotation devices, saying: ?This was not a drill.?
The native of England, who lives in Manassas, Va., Ormesher said he and his girlfriend smelled acrid smoke as they went to their muster station, the ship?s casino. He said the crew quickly provided instruction.
?This encouraged calm amongst the passengers,? he said. Passengers were required to remain at their stations for four hours, he said, and the captain ?provided us as much information as we needed to stay safe.?
Royal Caribbean said that the fire that began at 2:50 a.m. was extinguished about two hours later with no injuries reported.
Ormesher, 25, and on his first cruise, said the air conditioner had been shut off, and as the hours passed and the ship got hot, bottled water was passed around. The crew and passengers remained calm, and helped those who needed it. Crying babies were given formula and held while their parents used the bathrooms.
The ship had sailed from Baltimore on Friday and arrived in Freeport, Bahamas, Monday afternoon.
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