Two sailors injured as USS New Orleans burns for 12 hours near Okinawa
A fire aboard the USS New Orleans, a US Navy amphibious transport dock ship anchored off Okinawa, raged for nearly 12 hours before being brought under control early Thursday, leaving two sailors with minor injuries.The blaze began around 4 pm (local time) on Wednesday while the warship was anchored near the White Beach Naval Facility, the Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement. The New Orleans, commissioned in 2007, carries a crew of more than 360 sailors and is capable of transporting up to 800 troops.According to CNN, the US Navy confirmed that two sailors were treated for minor injuries in onboard medical facilities. The fire was declared out early Thursday, though Japan’s Coast Guard said efforts continued until after 9 am (local time) and that an investigation was underway to ensure the flames were fully extinguished.The New Orleans crew was assisted by firefighters from the USS San Diego, also stationed at White Beach, while the Japan Coast Guard, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and other US Navy commands on Okinawa provided “critical support,” the Navy said. As per news agency AFP, four Japanese vessels, including coast guard, navy, and private contractor ships, spent the night spraying water on the blaze.Images broadcast by NHK showed tugboats dousing the ship’s bow with water. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The Navy said the New Orleans crew will remain aboard the vessel.Naval analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, was quoted by CNN as saying that the scale of the blaze shows the service needs to revisit its prevention and firefighting protocols. He warned that damage could leave the ship inactive for 60 to 120 days. “A fire of that extent used to be rare on US Navy warships,” he said.The incident has revived memories of the 2020 disaster aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, when a blaze in San Diego burned for more than four days, leaving the ship beyond repair. A subsequent Navy investigation cited systemic failures in maintenance, training, and oversight.The US maintains around 54,000 military personnel in Japan, most based in Okinawa.
