Report: USS Ford's Laundry Room Fire Left 600 Crewmembers Without Berthing

Flight deck aboard USS Ford, March 6 (USN)

The recent fire aboard the supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford was more significant than initially reported, sailors and officials have told the New York Times. It started as a laundry room fire, as accurately described in official statements, but did not stop there. Defense officials told veteran national security reporter Helene Cooper that the blaze spread through vent ducts and swept through the berthing areas for more than 600 people, about one-eighth of the total crew complement aboard. The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe confirmed the reports.

Last week, U.S. Central Command reported that Ford had suffered a fire in an onboard laundry facility, possibly sparked by an electrical fault. Two people were treated for non-critical injuries, but the vessel remained on mission and launching fighter sorties. CENTCOM emphasized that the cause of the fire was not combat-related and said that it had been contained, with no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant.

According to the Times, the fire started in a dryer vent, then spread into berthing spaces. It took more than 30 hours to extinguish, the officials told the Times, indicating a significant firefighting effort. 600 personnel are now without berths because of the blaze and are sleeping where they can find space, sailors told the Times.

At the time of the incident, USS Gerald R. Ford and her carrier strike group were operating in the northern Red Sea, far from the high risk zone in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Gulf. CENTCOM emphasized that the fire was an accident, not the result of enemy action.

Despite the fire and the discomfort for the crew, Ford is expected to stay on station and set a new all-time record for longest carrier deployment, officials told the New York Times. The carrier was dispatched to the Caribbean for the Venezuela campaign, then redeployed across the Atlantic in the run-up to the strikes on Tehran.

At 10 months into her deployment, and having skipped a maintenance period, Ford is still running constant combat missions. Reinforcements are on the way: amphib USS Tripoli and an embarked complement of Marines are under way in the South China Sea, headed for Malacca and the Indian Ocean, and carrier USS George H.W. Bush has completed workups off Norfolk ahead of an expected deployment to join operations in the Mideast. Bush will likely relieve Ford, allowing the damaged carrier to sail back to Norfolk, an official told the Times.