USS New Orleans Fire Extinguished
USS New Orleans (LPD-18)
A fire that burned for 12 hours aboard the amphibious warship USS New Orleans (LPD-18) off Okinawa, Japan, was declared extinguished early Thursday morning local time, U.S. 7th Fleet announced.
The 25,000-ton warship is now anchored near the White Beach Naval Facility on Okinawa, according to a statement from the Japan-based fleet.
Two sailors were treated aboard New Orleans for minor injuries.
Fire extinguished aboard USS New Orleans
By Carla Babb
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.
The fire seemed to be located near the bows- that’s the front for our nautically challenged friends- where spaces are mostly used for crew berthing and storage. Onboard a ship everyone is a firefighter; glad the fire was handled quickly and with minimal injuries to the crew. Thanks to several of our Usual Suspects for the head’s up.
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Minor injuries are a major blessing.
Glad that was all (save whatever burned on the ship)
I was a HT (fire fighting was my jam) and On-Scene leader for Repair Locker #2 which is usually forward, below decks. That would have been my fire for a while. My son currently serves on LPD out of San Diego, and from what he’s said that’s either Berthing or Mess Decks/Galley. If the fire started around 1700, it might be and I’m just guessing grease that was ignited in the ventilation. There are CO2 suppression system over the fryers, but if it flashed or there was another ignition source a ventilation fire can be tricky to extinguish. Also, the New Orleans is out of Sasebo, so it was likely only the duty section was onboard when the fire started. We should all be thankful no one was seriously hurt. I’ll have to follow closely to see what they determine as the cause.
Were you using OBA breathing apparatus when you were serving or were you using modern SCBA air packs HT3 ???
We had the OBA’s and our dungarie work clothes to fight fires and had those fully encapsilated aluminum colored close up suits for fast close up rescues.. Back in the day, The Long Island NY Vollunteer Fire depts used OBA’s, Navy fog /solid stream nozzles with Different size’s of low velocity fog applicators. We had those but never used them since we had more modern nozzles. Back in the day for those OBA’s were way before the metal air packs came in to use. 30 years as a Long Island Volly, everything is still changing in equipment and the way fires are suppresed. Ain’t your grandfather’s fires anymore with household furnishings, newly studies on interior fire/smoke paths and info from European Fire Dept studies.
When I started in 1984, we had the 20-minute steel bottles.
Later we got the 30-minute aluminum bottles.
Before I retired, we got the 45-minute carbon fiber bottles for firefighting and 60-minute carbon fiber bottles for HAZMAT.
We really have come a long way.
In my first dept, we had the steel Scott or Msa bottles, I forgot over the years. My second dept after I moved, we had Scott and Msa steel bottles and a cascade system for filling the bottles but could never get a full charge. Some positive pressure masks, went to alumunum bottles then to the carbon fiber wrap but had to be carefull of any rips in the fiber. one of the Vollys went to scott school to learn maintenance on the pacs. I got caught by the Chief once wearing a cheater instead of my mask at a worker and that was the end of the cheater…
We used shitty old ChemOx canisters with the ‘ lungs ‘ that would deflate on the slightest contact with anything harder than a pillow, during my shipboard days. Sometimes the canister would spontaneously ignite also.
Thankfully, they have long been replaced by proper SCBA