Carnival Ship Evacuated After Explosion; 'Triumph' Evacuation Marks Second Problem Carnival Cruises Has Experienced This Year

A Carnival ship was evacuated on Wednesday night in Alabama.  The Carnival cruise ship was evacuated due to two fuel barges exploding. This is the second problem Carnival has had with this ship this year alone.

Officials reported that three people were seriously injured in the fuel barge explosion that caused the Carnival ship to be evacuated.

The ship was the Carnvial Triumph, which broke down back in February in the Gulf of Mexico. Passengers and crew were stranded for several days without having any power or running water. Ultimately, they were towed by authorities to  Mobile, AL.

Authorities are investigating what may have caused the explosion and subsequent fire. They currently believe that that a cleaning crew that was on board one of the barges caused a spark, which then ignited on the fuel ships. This may have lead to the explosion that caused the nearby Triumph, the Carnival cruise ship, to be evacuated.

"It is a scary thing any time you are talking about gasoline and fuel fires. They are lucky more people weren't hurt," an official said.

The initial blast took place in a ship channel near the George C. Wallace Tunnel. The tunnel carries car traffic from Interstate 10 underneath the Mobile River. The river runs south past Mobile, Alabama, into Mobile Bay, and from there into the Gulf of Mexico. The tunnels remained open following the incident.

Three people, none of whom were on the Carnival ship, were taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center for burn-related injuries. Hospital spokesman Bob Lowry said that they remained in critical condition on Thursday morning,.

Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine owns the barges. Greg Beuerman, the company spokesman, said the barges were empty and are currently being cleaned at the Oil Recovery Co. facility.

Alan Waugh, who lived across the river from the explosions, described what he saw, saying "it literally sounded like bombs going off around. The sky just lit up in orange and red. We could smell something in the air, we didn't know if it was gas or smoke."

The Carnival ship that was evacuated was been docked in Alabama for repairs following the incident in the Gulf of Mexico After the recent explosion, there were no injuries on board the ship.