Carnival Cruise Ship Remains Stranded At Sea After Engine Fire

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter has reached a damaged Carnival cruise ship stranded off the western coast of Mexico since early Monday morning, with nearly 4,500 passengers and crew onboard after an engine-room fire.

Two Coast Guard officers are now onboard the ship to help ensure the passengers' safety until two tugboats chartered by Carnival arrive and are able tow the ship to a Mexican port. The tugboats are expected to arrive midday today.

Carnival confirmed that three people on the ship were treated in the ship's infirmary for panic attacks, and a Coast Guard spokesman said no major medical problems had been reported. No one was injured in the fire.

The Carnival Splendor, a 113,000-ton behemoth, suffered an engine fire early Monday morning that knocked out the ship's power, including air conditioning, hot food service, flushing toilets and telephones, Carnival said in a statement. The fire was extinguished in about three hours.

The Coast Guard had boarded the ship while it was still in port in California the day before the fire, ABC News has learned, but a Coast Guard spokesperson declined to comment on the purpose of the visit because it is part of the investigation into the fire.

"I can't say about that specific cruise ship, but the Coast Guard regularly conducts safety and security boardings aboard all sorts of vessels," USCG spokesperson Petty Officer Pamela Manns told ABC News. "It's part of how we do business."

In a Facebook posting Sunday evening, Carnival's senior cruise director John Heald complained that the Coast Guard was conducting tests of the ship's generators and had shut down the elevators.