Navy’s top admiral indicates carrier Ford fire stopped sorties for two days

The USS Gerald R Ford, the US Navy’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, was only able to fly sorties two days after a March 12 laundry fire was extinguished, the US Navy’s top officer said, in the first indication that the blaze hindered combat operations against Iran.When the fire broke out, the ship was operating in the Red Sea as part of Operation Epic Fury.A statement from the US 5th Fleet on March 12 said the ship remained fully operational after the fire, which it said was not combat-related and had left two sailors with non-life-threatening injuries.Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, speaking to the Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Tuesday, praised how the Ford’s crew dealt with the laundry space fire."They fought that, put it out, and started flying sorties two days after that, so I’m very proud of that crew,« he said.A US official told CNN last month that putting out the fire, cleaning up water damage or other substances used to put out the fire, and ensuring there were no flare-ups took about 30 hours.The official also said that slightly more than 100 beds were damaged in the fire, as some sleeping areas are adjacent to the laundry area where the fire occurred. But they acknowledged roughly 600 sailors total were displaced from their sleeping areas or bunks.The Ford was pulled from action just over a week after the fire, with the Navy saying the 100,000-ton warship was being sent to a US base at Souda Bay, Greece, for repairs.While at the port on the island of Crete, seven berthing compartments on the Ford were repaired, a statement from the 6th Fleet said.The Navy has not released any information on what may have sparked the March 12 blaze, but a March 28 statement from 6th Fleet said „military and federal civilian law enforcement continued investigations into a fire aboard the ship originating in the ship’s laundry facilities.“
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