(17 Aug 2016) More than 500 passengers and crew evacuated from a burning ship about a mile off Puerto Rico's north coast on Wednesday, with many requiring medical care, though there were no reported fatalities or life-threatening injuries.
The fire continued to burn aboard the Caribbean Fantasy, a combination cruise and ferry ship, as US Coast Guard boats brought passengers into San Juan's harbour while helicopters whirred overheard.
The Coast Guard said all passengers and crew were evacuated.
Federal authorities were interviewing the captain, according to local media.
The ship runs several times weekly between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The fire apparently had been burning for some time before the alarm was sounded.
Local media reported that 105 people were treated at the scene, mostly for heat stroke, shock and dehydration, and 24 others had been hospitalised.
On the docks, several dozen people were carried in on stretchers.
The injured were followed by a small group of children who held hands as they disembarked from Coast Guard boats.
Passengers found to be in good health were loaded onto city buses to be taken to the ship's original destination, where they went through customs.
The fire erupted in the engine room and was spreading to the rest of the ship, Miami-based Coast Guard spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo said by phone.
Officials with American Cruise Ferries, which operates the Panamanian-flagged ship built in 1989, did not return messages for comment about the fire.
A ProPublica investigation found that the US Coast Guard had discovered 107 deficiencies during 61 inspections of the ship since 2010.
The most recent inspections found no major faults, but a January 2015 inspection stated that oil fuel lines should be screened or protected in some way to avoid any spray or leakage onto ignition sources.
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