Three sailors were injured this week in a fire aboard a destroyer in Mississippi, a Navy spokesperson confirmed.
On Sunday, April 19, at approximately 9:45 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, a fire broke out aboard the Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer as it was stationed pierside at a Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard.
According to the spokesperson, the “crew responded immediately and extinguished the fire.” However, three sailors received treatment for injuries sustained in the incident.
One sailor was transported to a local hospital, while the other two received first-aid at the scene. All were in stable condition as of Friday. The sailor transported to the hospital to receive care was released on April 21 and expected to return to full duty.
The extent of the damage is still undetermined, with the Navy currently investigating both the cause of the fire and the overall damage, according to the spokesperson.
The fire is one of several that have disrupted the fleet in recent weeks. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower sustained a small fire on April 14 while it was sidelined for maintenance. In March, a blaze that broke out in the USS Gerald R. Ford’s laundry room forced the aircraft carrier to port in Crete after the fire displaced nearly 600 sailors from their beds.
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Since August 2023, the USS Zumwalt has been undergoing a series of modernization upgrades, following the Navy’s decision to replace the long-range gun system with missile tubes to field long-range hypersonic missiles and turn the destroyers into blue-water strike platforms, the U.S. Naval Institute reported.
The Zumwalt was moved to land for roughly three years. It received major technological upgrades, including the Conventional Prompt Strike weapon system, and new missile tubes to replace the original twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems, according to the institute.
The destroyer took to the sea once again in January 2026.
Once envisioned to be the future of Navy destroyers with a fleet of 32 vessels, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyer was abruptly canceled in 2008 by the U.S. Navy after it was deemed too costly and unable to perform “broader, integrated air and missile defense,” Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, said at the time.
The USS Zumwalt is now just one of three DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers left, the other two being USS Michael Monsoor and USS Lyndon B. Johnson — billed at an estimated $8 billion each.
Claire Barrett is an editor and military history correspondent for Military Times. She is also a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.
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