A Carnival Cruise Ship Caught Fire In Grand Turk & Footage Shows A Huge Smoke Cloud

Passengers of the Carnival Freedom cruise ship were faced with a dramatic scene in Turks and Caicos on Thursday, when a fire onboard created a huge a cloud of black smoke over their ship.

The Carnival Freedom cruise ship was docked in Grand Turk Thursday morning when the fire broke out in the ship's funnel, the Associated Press reports.

In a statement released by Carnival, the cruise ship company said an "emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship's funnel."

The fire did not cause any injuries or significant damage, although several passengers did capture the scary scene on camera.

"All guests and crew are safe, and all other ship, hotel, and guest services, along with safety equipment are fully functioning," read the statement.

Guests shared images and videos of the fire on Twitter.

One user wrote: "Not a way to wake up this morning at port aboard the #carnivalmardigras."

When the fire broke out, most of the cruise ship guests were ashore in Grand Turk.

After the fire was extinguished, a technical team for Carnival checked the funnel and worked out a plan to send passengers home to Port Canaveral in Florida.

The five-day cruise departed from Port Canaveral Monday, May 23, with 2,504 guests and 972 crew on board.

Another cruise ship was due to depart from Miami on Friday but it's since been cancelled. Instead, the ship "will be deployed to Grand Turk to transport Freedom guests back to Port Canaveral," Carnival said.

"Carnival Conquest will arrive to Grand Turk on Saturday, May 28 and guests aboard Carnival Freedom will transfer to Carnival Conquest for the voyage back to Port Canaveral, arriving on Monday, May 30."

The fire also forced Carnival to knock a day off its Carnival Conquest cruise ship's next voyage. That cruise will now leave on May 31, instead of May 30.

"Carnival apologized to all those guests who are impacted and offered special thanks to the crew who handled the situation on the ship effectively and according to safety protocols," the company said.