The Coast Guard does not fight fires. That is the official policy—at least for fires that break out on board vessels that do not fly a Coast Guard ensign. Instead, the service provides 'assistance as available' and serves as 'an important resource' to firefighting organizations through its development of written contingency plans for each major port.'1 Yet Coast Guard boats and cutters respond annually to hundreds of at-sea and waterfront fires involving private, commercial, and public property, so many that such cases rank high among the reasons for search-and-rescue sorties.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2022/august/coast-guards-firefighting-fiction

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