Japan’s coast guard and military are helping the Navy battle a blaze that broke out aboard an amphibious transport docking ship off Okinawa’s southeastern coast on Wednesday evening. “Crews are responding to a fire aboard USS New Orleans (LPD 18) this evening, Aug. 20, (Japan time) which is in the vicinity of Okinawa, Japan,” U.S. 7th Fleet wrote in an unsigned statement emailed to Stars and Stripes. “We will provide more details as they become available.”
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The fire started in the front part of the 684-foot-long vessel, a coast guard spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. “We do not know if it started on the outside or the inside of the ship; we are still investigating,” he said.

Two tugboats and an unspecified Self-Defense Force vessel were participating in firefighting efforts at 6 p.m., the spokesman said.

Camp Foster withdrew the firefighting request at 5:55 p.m. and asked all vessels to stay about a mile away, the coast guard said. The request was reinstated at 7:28 p.m.

The coast guard initially dispatched one vessel and was preparing to join firefighting efforts as of 8:30 p.m., the spokesman said