Fire on USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Injures Two Sailors

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The fire appears to have started in the Ford’s laundry room—a recurring hazard on US Navy ships.

On Thursday, a non-combat-related fire broke out on the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the US Navy’s newest nuclear-powered supercarrier. It has been contained, but two sailors were reported injured.

The sailors are in “stable condition” and their injuries were not life threatening, the Navy said in a social media post.

The Ford is currently located in the Red Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury.

The US Navy clarified that the fire had not been related to combat. Instead, it started in the laundry room, and was soon contained. The Navy said that the ship was still fully operational.

The Ford Fire Isn’t the First Laundry Fire on a US Navy Ship

Although the extent of the damage isn’t known, laundry fires on warships are surprisingly common. Just as with home fires, they can be caused by a failure to clean lint traps or properly maintain dryer exhaust systems.

“These areas also present significant fire hazards due to the presence of flammable materials, high temperatures, and complex machinery,” a maritime law firm explained about the dangers of laundry room fires on cruise ships.

It should be noted that the problem could be made worse on an aircraft carrier, where clothing is necessarily often contaminated with oils or even aviation fuels from sailors’ work on the carrier deck. These hazards are not typically as prevalent on other warships, or on civilian vessels.

Could Crew Fatigue Have Played a Role in the Ford’s Laundry Room Fire?

It is unclear what role crew fatigue may have played in the incident.

CVN-78 departed from her homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, on June 24, 2025. As of Friday, she has spent 262 straight days at sea.

USS Gerald R. Ford was operating in the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear until last month, when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the supercarrier to the Middle East as the US military began to build up forces in advance of Operation Epic Fury.

It had been expected that CVN-78 would return home, not head back to the other side of the world when the order came down. The supercarrier is now expected to break the post-Vietnam War record for time at sea set by USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) during her 2019–2020 deployment, which lasted 294 days.

By early May, CVN-78 could see a deployment as long as those during the Vietnam War, when US Navy carriers spent 300 days or longer operating in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Experts have warned that such lengthy deployments can impact crew morale and performance. Overly long deployments can lead to fatigue, and then to accidents—such as the crash of an F-35C on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in 2022, which was attributed to pilot workload.

US Navy Ship Fires Used to Be Much Worse

The US Navy improved its fire response following three devastating fires onboard its aircraft carriers in the 1960s—most infamously the USS Forrestal fire of July 1967, which killed 134 sailors and injured hundreds more. Although none of those fires started in the laundry room, they underscored the need to quickly respond to the threat before it spread.

Though fire protection has improved since the 1960s, devastating fires continue to occur. In July 2020, a fire broke out on board the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard while it was stationed in port in San Diego, California. Although there were no fatalities, the fire injured 63 sailors and gutted the warship, leading the Navy to scrap it the following year. In a subsequent investigation, the service determined that inadequate training and readiness had contributed to the ineffective fire response.

In other words, there is no such thing as a small fire on a warship. 

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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