On 9 May 1989, while underway in the South China Sea en route from Hong Kong to her homeport of Guam, "White Plains" experienced a major Class Bravo fire in the main engine room while conducting fueling at sea with the combat replenishment ship "USS Sacramento" (AOE-1). The fire resulted from the ejection of a valve stem on the fuel transfer system which sent a high-pressure spray of fuel onto the back of a firing boiler that consequently ignited into a fireball. There were 6 fatalities and 161 injuries reported as a result of the fire. The cause of the valve stem ejection was a failure to follow proper tag-out procedures, a partially disassembled butterfly valve, poor validation of the fuel transfer checklist, and subsequent pressurization of the fuel line containing the valve. "White Plains" was towed to SRF Subic Bay by USNS Narragansett for preliminary repairs and returned to Guam approximately three months later.