This story has been updated.
U.S. and Japanese crews extinguished the fire aboard amphibious transport docking ship New Orleans off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, two defense officials told Military Times.
U.S. Navy crews, along with the Japan Coast Guard and military, put out the fire by 4 a.m. Thursday, Japan Standard Time. They had been working to extinguish the blaze for about 11 hours, since 5 p.m. JST on Wednesday.
Two sailors sustained minor injuries and were treated by medical personnel aboard the vessel, according to the U.S. 7th Fleet.
Another defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the ship, said the fire appeared to be contained to the middle decks near the ship’s bow. The official added that multiple decks had been affected, without specifying how many decks were burned.
The New Orleans was anchored near White Beach Naval Facility during the time of the blaze, the 7th Fleet said. The crew of the amphibious transport docking ship San Diego, moored at the facility, helped with the firefighting efforts.
A U.S. Marine Corps official told Military Times that no Marines were aboard the ship when the fire broke out.
At the time of publishing, it was unclear how many sailors were aboard when the fire started, or what caused the blaze. The cause is under investigation, the 7th Fleet said.
The crew of the New Orleans was expected to remain aboard the ship.
Sailors battle blaze aboard USS New Orleans off Japan’s coast
The fire could further hinder the availability of amphibious warships at a time when the Navy is already struggling with readiness issues within the fleet. The readiness rate of amphibious ships critical to Marine missions has dropped to 41%, a defense official told Military Times earlier this week.
The lack of available amphibious warfare ships, known as amphibs, resulted in a more than five-month gap in Marine Expeditionary Unit deployments this year. The 31st MEU completed its last patrol aboard the America Amphibious Ready Group in early March. The 22nd MEU deployed aboard the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group on Thursday.
Officials say the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group has docked in Norfolk after sailing off the coast of the Carolinas to avoid Hurricane Erin. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the deployment, said the ships had planned to enter into Caribbean waters under the command of U.S. SOUTHCOM but had been delayed by the storm, which on Wednesday remained a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 miles per hour.
An investigation by the Government Accountability Office in 2024 found that half of the U.S. Navy’s 32 amphibious warfare ships were in poor material condition.
The Marine Corps has said it needs the amphib readiness rate at 80% or higher to complete its missions with the current number of ships in the fleet, and Marine Corps commandant Gen. Eric Smith has called the amphib readiness rate a “crisis.”
“I have the Marines, and I have the squadrons, and I have the battalions and the batteries … I just don’t have the amphibs,” Smith told Voice of America late last year.
