A fire occurred on the US amphibious transport ship USS New Orleans on August 20, 2025, when the warship was off the coast of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The fire was only controlled after 11 hours, causing about $12 million in damage and leaving two soldiers with minor injuries.
"Up to the time the report was signed, the investigation by the US Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) was still ongoing and the origin of the fire had not been determined," the Navy Times newspaper this week quoted the content of the NCIS report as writing.
However, NCIS's preliminary assessment shows that the cause of the fire originated from human behavior, possibly intentional or negligent, after excluding reasons such as electrical problems or weather factors.
The fire broke out at about 3:20 p.m. in the special clothing warehouse on the 6th floor. "The warehouse was filled with helmets, life jackets and about 100 boxes of toilet paper stacked up to the ceiling," the investigation report said.
At the time of the incident, all the lights at the scene were off and nothing was plugged into the electrical outlet. This is why NCIS identified human factors as the cause of the fire, possibly due to smoking.
A non-commissioned officer in charge of hazardous materials on the ship initially told investigators that "he heard rumors of people smoking illegally" near the fire site, but later denied it. No other witnesses mentioned this rumor.
According to investigation results, the fire lasted longer than usual because the toilet paper boxes covered the fire sprinklers in the warehouse, causing the automatic fire extinguishing system to not operate normally. The toilet paper also acted as kindling, causing the fire to spread and last longer.
Hazardous materials not allowed in storage, such as aerosol spray cans, were also found after the fire. Firefighters on the ship were unable to quickly locate the fire, although the alarm system indicated that the fire occurred in a special clothing store.
After determining that the fire broke out in the clothing warehouse on the 6th floor, they still could not rush inside due to the lack of door-breaking equipment. According to the report, it is possible that the fire would have been controlled sooner if response forces were properly trained and equipped with the necessary tools.
They also had to leave the area outside the warehouse, after a fire suppression system designed to protect a nearby flammable liquid storage facility activated too early. This situation, combined with the failure of responders to properly isolate the fire and smoke, caused smoke to spread throughout the ship.
NCIS also discovered that the warship's command board did not clearly understand how to operate the firefighting system, including sprinklers. The system was designed to automatically activate based on the temperature difference sensor, but the technical chief and his subordinates thought that it had to be operated manually and spent a lot of valuable time trying to find a way to activate it.
The crew should have focused on the ventilation system, but used too much water trying to put out the fire. This creates a lot of steam, reduces visibility and floods the area, hindering efforts to reach the fire.
At 3:59 p.m., Captain Kevin Dean issued an alarm to the entire ship and announced that there was a big fire. The amphibious transport ship USS San Diego responded and mobilized 80 sailors to join the firefighting effort. A few hours later, four tugboats and two Japanese coast guard ships arrived to help put out the fire.
At around 1:30 a.m. on August 21, 2025, the crew controlled the fire and ended the crisis that lasted more than 10 hours.
USS New Orleans returns to its home port to conduct planned maintenance in November 2025 and returns to service 2 months later. The warship was then deployed to support the US maritime blockade campaign after the Middle East conflict broke out in late February.
Although it is investigating the exact cause of the fire, the US Navy said it has learned lessons from the mistakes made in the fire.
"Lessons learned from the incident have been incorporated into damage control training programs across the entire service, helping to ensure that soldiers will be better prepared to respond to future incidents," a US Navy spokesman said.
USS New Orleans is the second of 13 San Antonio-class amphibious transport ships, launched in 2004 and commissioned three years later. The ship has a length of 208 m, a width of 32 m and a full load displacement of 25,300 tons.
Each San Antonio-class amphibious transport ship had an average factory price of about 1.6 billion USD in 2012, equivalent to about 2.3 billion USD today. This type of warship has the function of transporting marines close to the coast to perform expeditionary combat missions.
USS New Orleans has a crew of 361 people and can carry up to 700 marines, accompanied by two air cushion landing ships or a multi-purpose landing ship, along with 14 AAV-7 amphibious armored vehicles and up to 5 MV-22 Osprey hybrid helicopters.
The ship's self-defense weapons include two 30 mm automatic missiles, two RIM-116 anti-aircraft missile launchers and several 12.7 mm machine guns.
