What was to have been a fun girls’ getaway for three young women quickly turned terrifying when a small fire broke out on their cruise ship balcony.
The fear continued after the fire was safely contained with how the women were allegedly treated by crew members investigating the incident.
The fire occurred aboard Carnival Glory on Saturday, February 22, 2025. The ship had set sail from Port Canaveral the day before for a 3-night Bahamas cruise, and had visited Nassau earlier that day.
According to ClickOrlando, the fire was on the young women’s balcony on Deck 6, where a towel was draped over a chair when both began to smolder and became “engulfed” in flames.
Photos of the chair show much of the seat and back destroyed and melted, and video of the incident shows a great deal of smoke in the impacted stateroom and the adjacent hallway.
The ship’s crew responded to the incident immediately and the small fire was quickly extinguished. At no time were any of the ship’s operational systems impacted, nor were there any general emergency alerts for all passengers. There were no injuries reported.
Every Carnival ship maintains a highly trained fire response team onboard, and regular training and drills are practiced to ensure fast, efficient reactions to any type of fire situation.
The cause of the fire has not yet been conclusively determined, but a full investigation is sure to be underway to discover just how it began and whether or not all safety measures were functioning properly.
Women Upset at Crew Treatment
The young women involved in the fire, Tatianna Chuitian and two of her friends, who have not been identified, are upset not only at the overall situation, but with how they were treated in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
While Chuitian acknowledges that she and her friends were “cleared of any blame” by the ship’s crew, they were unhappy with how they were treated when taken to the ship’s medical center as an emergency precaution.
“They just kept telling me, like, you need to calm down,” Chuitian said. “‘You’re making this worse for yourself. Like calm down and tell us what happened. And then, you know, like if you ladies start lying to us like we’re getting the FBI involved, we’re getting Coast Guard’ like they’re just bullying us.”
In social media posts, the young women described being required to take pregnancy tests, with a suspicion that it may actually have been a drug test.
Other medical professionals have noted, however, that a quick urine-based pregnancy test is standard procedure when emergency treatment may be needed on any woman of potentially child-bearing age, as some drugs can be harmful to an unborn baby.
Other allegations include the idea that the women were not permitted to photograph their written statements, they were pressured to sign waivers, and all their belongings were damaged.
Further evidence of these allegations have not yet been forthcoming, but may be part of the overall investigation.
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Carnival Cruise Line has not released any details of the incident, which is also standard procedure when an investigation is ongoing. The cruise line did release a brief statement to news media.
“We have a very robust fire management system, including alarms, detectors, sprinklers and training. This matter was quickly handled and there were no injuries,” the cruise line stated.
The 110,000-gross-ton, Conquest-class Carnival Glory can host 2,980 guests at double occupancy, and is also home to approximately 1,150 international crew members.
Following the small fire, there was no change to the ship’s itinerary and Carnival Glory has already departed Port Canaveral on her next sailing, a 4-night Bahamas cruise.
