After a fire broke out in its engine room, more than 500 passengers and crew members on a ship off the coast of Puerto Rico had to be rescued Wednesday afternoon.
The passengers were safely evacuated to San Juan's harbor, where 105 people were treated at the scene, most for shock, dehydration, and heat stroke, and 24 were hospitalized. The Caribbean Fantasy is a combination ferry and cruise ship, and an engineer told The Associated Press he spent two hours with another engineer trying to extinguish the fire. The ship runs several times a week between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and most of the passengers, including a boys' baseball team, a cycling team, and a girls' volleyball team, were Dominican.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Drugmakers paid pharmacy benefit managers to avoid restricting opioid prescriptionsUnder the radar The middlemen and gatekeepers of insurance coverage have been pocketing money in exchange for working with Big Pharma
-
The week's best photosIn Pictures A cyclone's aftermath, a fearless leap, and more
-
The Imaginary Institution of India: a 'compelling' exhibitionThe Week Recommends 'Vibrant' show at the Barbican examines how political upheaval stimulated Indian art
-
Hundreds feared dead in French Mayotte cycloneSpeed Read Cyclone Chido slammed into Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean
-
Thirteen missing after Red Sea tourist boat sinksSpeed Read The vessel sank near the Egyptian coastal town of Marsa Alam
-
Global plastics summit starts as COP29 endsSpeed Read Negotiators gathering in South Korea seek an end to the world's plastic pollution crisis, though Trump's election may muddle the deal
-
Biden visits Amazon, says climate legacy irreversibleSpeed Read Nobody can reverse America's 'clean energy revolution,' said the president, despite the incoming Trump administration's promises to dismantle climate policies
-
At least 95 dead in Spain flash floodsSpeed Read Torrential rainfall caused the country's worst flooding since 1996
-
Cuba roiled by island-wide blackouts, Hurricane OscarSpeed Read The country's power grid collapsed for the fourth time in just two days
-
Wildlife populations drop a 'catastrophic' 73%Speed Read The decline occurred between 1970 and 2020
-
Floridians flee oncoming Hurricane MiltonSpeed Read The hurricane is expected to cause widespread damage in the state
