She called at Casablanca, Gibraltar, and Bizerte, before arriving at Naples, Italy, 16 October to serve as harbor fire fighting ship.

Her first long struggle against fire was a successful three-day battle to save SS Iredell carrying highly flammable aviation gas.

Extricate also fought a dock fire, and performed salvage work before leaving Naples 30 November for Palermo and Bari.

Extricate was overhauled at Bizerte and Oran before returning to Naples 11 May 1944 for salvage and towing duty along the west coast of Italy.

Extricate sailed from Charleston, South Carolina, 11 February 1945 for Pearl Harbor, where she had salvage duty from 10 March to 13 April, rescuing storm-damaged small craft.