The New Orleans has been deployed to Sasebo, Japan, since December 2019. The ship is one of the Navy’s San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks, which transport embarked Marines and can carry Landing Craft Air Cushions and other landing craft along with Amphibious Assault Vehicles and helicopters or MV-22B Ospreys.

The amphibious transport docking ship New Orleans was ablaze off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, as of Wednesday night Japan Standard Time. U.S. Navy crews were responding to the fire, along with the Japan Coast Guard and military. The Japan Coast Guard said it received an emergency message about the fire at 5 p.m. local time.

The Navy previously fought a vicious fire aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego in July 2020, an incident that saw four days of around-the-clock efforts to put out all active fires aboard the ship. That fire left 62 people — 40 sailors and 23 civilians — injured from smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion.