Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Suffers Fire, At Least 2 Sailors Injured

( USNI )

A fire broke out aboard aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) on Thursday, multiple sources confirmed to USNI News.

The initial fire has been extinguished, but the crew is still doing damage control, according to a U.S. official. Naval Sea Systems Command’s Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center is preparing to help the fleet with electrical support, USNI News understands.

“On March 12, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) experienced a fire that originated in the ship’s main laundry spaces,” reads a U.S. Central Command statement posted to social media website X. “The cause of the fire was not combat-related and is contained. There is no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational. Two sailors are currently receiving medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries and are in stable condition. Additional information will be provided when available.”

As of Wednesday, Ford was operating in the northern part of the Red Sea, off the coast of Al Wajh, Saudi Arabia, according to a ship spotter. Ford and three of its escorts – USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) and USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) – transited the Suez Canal last week.

The Ford Carrier Strike Group has been participating in Operation Epic Fury, the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran that is nearing the end of its second week.

The carrier has been deployed since June of 2025 and has been extended multiple times. Last month, the Pentagon extended Ford and tasked the carrier to the Middle East ahead of the start of the war with Iran.

If Ford remains deployed until mid-April, it will break the post-Vietnam War 294-day record for carrier deployments. USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) set that record in 2020. Should the carrier stay out until early May, it would rival the 300-day-plus deployments that carriers conducted during the Vietnam War to the Gulf of Tonkin.

The USNI News carrier deployment data uses an internal database that does not include training exercises, certification cruises or other qualification underways. The data only features operational carrier deployments focused on national tasking as a measure of U.S. combat power and does not account for the time sailors are away from home.

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, USS Nimitz  (CVN-68) was underway for just under a year because of restriction of movement orders and rules around limited port visits meant to reduce virus spread. The carrier was deployed for national tasking for 263 days.