Fire on US warship off Japan burns for 12 hours, injures 2 sailors before being extinguished

A fire burned aboard a US Navy warship anchored off Okinawa for 12 hours, injuring two sailors, a statement from the Navy's 7th Fleet in Japan said.

The fire aboard the USS New Orleans, an amphibious transport dock ship with a crew of more than 360 sailors and capable of carrying 800 troops, began about 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday and was extinguished early Thursday morning, according to the statement.

But a statement from the Japan Coast Guard, which helped fight the fire, said firefighting efforts did not end until just after 9 a.m. local time and that an investigation was underway to determine whether it was fully extinguished.

Two sailors suffered minor injuries and were treated in on-board medical facilities, the Navy said.

When the fire broke out, the ship was at anchor off the White Beach Naval Facility, on the east coast of the Japanese island. The facility serves as a staging area for US Marines and their equipment to deploy to amphibious ships like the New Orleans, which is 684 feet long with a displacement of 24,000 tons.

New Orleans' crew was assisted in firefighting efforts by crews from the USS San Diego, which was also moored at White Beach, the Navy said.

The Japan Coast Guard, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and other US Navy commands on Okinawa "provided critical support to the firefighting efforts," the Navy statement said.

Images from Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed tugs spraying water on the front of the New Orleans.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, the 7th Fleet statement said.

Analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, said fires are always a danger on warships, which carry a lot of flammable material.

The US Navy's worst ship fire in recent years occurred aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard in July 2020, while it was in port in San Diego undergoing upgrades to carry F-35 fighter jets. That fire burned for more than four days and resulted in the Navy scrapping the billion-dollar ship.

A Navy investigation found the fire was the result of a series of systemic failures, including a failure to maintain the ship, ensure adequate training, provide shore support, or carry out oversight. After the fire, the service introduced new inspection and training procedures to prevent future fires.

Analysts said at the time that losing a ship like the Bonhomme Richard, even for a period of several months, can set back service readiness for years.

Fire damage could leave the New Orleans out of action for 60 to 120 days, Schuster said.

He said the New Orleans fire shows the Navy needs to again "review and improve its fire prevention and firefighting procedures."

"A fire of that extent used to be rare on US Navy warships," Schuster said.

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