"There was no panic," said passenger Tom Vento, 56, of Philadelphia. "I was surprised that with so many people everyone was so calm.; "At first, we thought it was a joke, but then we saw that it was serious."; The 14-deck, 800-foot luxury liner left Miami on Saturday for a seven-day voyage to La Badee, a private island near Haiti; Puerto Rico; and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.; Rich Steck, a spokesman for Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, which owns the ship, said it would return to Miami on Wednesday night after a Coast Guard safety inspection rather than continue the cruise. Passengers will be given a full refund, he said.; In Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board said a two-member team would meet the ship at Miami to investigate the fire.; The board has been concerned about the potential for accidents in the cruise ship industry and has held hearings around the nation. Last year, it placed cruise ships on its "most wanted" list of safety improvements.; Steck said the fire, which started in a pantry between the fifth and seventh decks, apparently was caused by an electrical problem, but no details were available.; The fire broke out about 1 a.m. and spread to the 1,000-seat Follies Lounge, which was closed at the time. It took about 4 1/2 hours to extinguish the blaze, the Coast Guard said.; The 2,318 passengers and most of the 818 crew members were evacuated to a nearby port terminal before they were allowed to return to the ship at daybreak, Steck said.; The 74,000-ton Sovereign of the Seas is one of the world's heaviest cruise ships and the largest in terms of its passenger capacity of 2,521, Steck said.
More than 3,000 passengers and crewmembers were evacuated early Wednesday from the Sovereign of the Seas cruise ship after a fire broke out in a pantry . One crewman suffered from smoke inhalation , but there were no other injuries in the fire . The ship was anchored in San Juan when the fire was discovered . The 1 , 800-foot luxury liner will return to Miami where it will be met by a two- member team from the National Transportation and Safety Board to investigate the fire . The board has been concerned about safety in the cruise ship industry because of the potential for a major fire .