The Navy experienced its fifth accident in four days Wednesday as a boiler fire broke out in the USS Monongahelia, a fleet oiler, in the Eastern Atlantic. One sailor was slightly injured, officials said.

The sailor suffered minor burns and was treated aboard the ship, said a spokesman for the Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Va. Seven other sailors were treated for smoke inhalation.It was the fifth accident for the Navy in four days that has claimed at least five lives and left three ships damaged.

A day earlier, two sailors were missing and feared dead after being washed overboard from the aircraft carriers USS Eisenhower and USS Vinson in incidents in the Pacific and the Atlantic. Defense officials said the two accidents were unrelated.

"If you look at the totality of Navy operations worldwide, obviously by a very wide margin the operations have been safe," Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffman said Tuesday.

Three sailors and 38 missiles on the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower went overboard Tuesday off Cape Hatteras. Two sailors were plucked from the ocean by Navy rescue helicopters, but crews searched without success for the third, said Lt. Cmdr. Steve Burnett at the Atlantic Fleet headquarters.

In a separate incident, a sailor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Vinson washed overboard some 600 miles north of Wake Island at 5:26 a.m. Tuesday during 12-foot swells and 10-knot winds. A Navy search has been unsuccessful.

One of the rescued sailors was in critical but stable condition and the second was reported in good condition at the carrier's hospital.

The missing sailor was identified as Craig Anthony Harris, 22, of Uniontown, Pa. Lt. Paul Jenkins said said the search was called off late Tuesday and there were no plans to resume it Wednesday.

About 18 Sparrow missiles and 20 Sidewinder missiles were washed overboard and sank, officials said. The missiles, which were armed with conventional warheads, sank in deep water and posed no danger.

The elevator apparently reached the hangar deck when a huge wave washed them overboard, said Lt. Cmdr. Mike John of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

In the USS Vinson accident, a search operation for the missing sailor included the vessel, its aircraft and two support ships, the USS California and the USS Vincennes. The battle group was on its way home to Alameda, Calif., from a port call in South Korea when the sailor was lost.

Navy Lt. Bruce Cole said, "What we've got are totally unrelated accidents; one in the Atlantic, one in the Gulf of Mexico and another in the Indian Ocean.

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"The circumstances are totally unrelated. I don't see any conclusions anyone can draw from it," Cole said.

On Monday, five sailors were injured when a Navy pilot mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on the cruiser USS Reeves during night weapons practice in the Indian Ocean.

In the worst accident of the week, four men and one woman were killed and 19 injured Sunday when a fledgling pilot's landing attempt on the carrier USS Lexington in the Gulf of Mexico went awry and he crashed on board.

Wednesday's fire broke out in the Monongahelia's main engineering space at about 4 a.m. local time as the Norfolk-based vessel was steaming between the Azores and Rota, Spain, a Navy spokesman said.

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