A fire broke out aboard France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle while the vessel was docked at the Toulon naval base, the French Navy has said.

The alarm sounded shortly before 11:30 am on Monday in a technical compartment of about 10 square meters next to the aviation hangar at quay Milhaud 6, according to the navy and the Mediterranean maritime prefecture.

The hangar held no aircraft. Sailors on board moved immediately to fight the blaze and were reinforced by firefighter crews from the Toulon base. The fire was brought under control at 12:35 and declared extinguished at 13:50. Investigations continued with support from the Marseille naval firefighters’ battalion.

“There were no injuries and no impact was observed on the vessel’s nuclear facilities,” the navy said. Initial findings indicated the fire was caused by cutting work with a blowtorch. Specialized outlet Mer et Marine, citing a military source, later reported that the incident involved a hot spot near a bulkhead that began to burn insulation and produced smoke, and that no open flame had taken hold.

The Charles de Gaulle has been in a technical stop at its home port since late August and is scheduled to remain there until early December.

The carrier is the centerpiece of French naval power projection and has previously operated in waters linked to Western military postures in West Asia, including deployments near the Gulf of Aden.

The incident comes as France and other Western states continue to align with Washington’s confrontational line in the region, even as the US-Israeli war on Iran has exposed the limits of that posture.

Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider economic shock from the aggression have already strained energy markets and shipping, while European navies remain tied to maintenance cycles and vulnerable even in home port.

Paris has repeatedly assured that the nuclear plant was untouched, but the fire aboard its sole carrier during routine dockyard work underscores the fragility of the assets Western capitals rely on to project force far from home.