New video footage obtained exclusively by CNN has exposed the true scale of a fire that broke out aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford in March during the American aircraft carrier's operations against Iran.
The damage is, reportedly, far more severe than what the US Navy had publicly acknowledged at the time.
The Navy's original statement described the blaze as "contained," with only two sailors treated for minor injuries and the carrier declared "fully operational."
A senior US official told the network that the Navy's statement had downplayed the fire's operational impact, the Ford was unable to fly sorties for two days afterward and was forced to sail to Greece for temporary repairs.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle, while acknowledging the fire was "significant, laundry and dryer-based," praised the crew's response. "They fought it brilliantly and courageously and basically was back in the fight within a matter of days," he told CNN.
But the CNN footage tells a starkly different story. Sailors' bunks were completely destroyed, reduced to charred, twisted metal frames beneath a gutted ceiling. Wires dangled from above while heaps of ash blanketed the floor.
The human toll on those aboard was acute. "I seriously thought we were going to lose the ship," one sailor told CNN, speaking anonymously. "It's either fight or die."
Making matters worse, the ship's built-in fire-suppression system failed to activate, leaving the crew to battle the blaze manually. "It shouldn't have gotten that bad," the sailor said. "The fire-suppression system built into the ship should have put it out."
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According to CNN, it took approximately 30 hours to fully extinguish the fire, and around 600 sailors lost access to their sleeping quarters as a result.
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The $13-billion carrier, the most technologically advanced in the US fleet, returned to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, in May after a record-breaking 11-month deployment, the longest operational carrier deployment since the Vietnam War.
One US official told CNN the Ford may now be sidelined for at least a year due to accumulated wear and fire-related damage, potentially leaving a gap in American naval readiness.
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