Fire, Fire, Fire...

Devil Doc

Teufel Doc
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The duty inport fire party was called away this morning on our big deck amphib Bonhomme Richard who is pier side at 32nd Street. Captain Obvious says a shipboard fire is a nightmare but at least she is in port with an assist from SDFD and all the hospitals in the area.

 
Its Streaming live on cbs 8 San Diego Facebook page. Wowzers. Intense.
 
Two of my kids have been onboard this ship, one as a Sea Cadet on a two week cruise, one as a SARC/SOIDC on a special mission in the Middle East. Too close to home for me... Relieved to see there was no loss of life!
 
CBS 8 ... " Chief Colin Stowell said that the fire would “more than likely” burn the ship to the water. " WTF? That sounds bad.
 
The ship could burn for days, "down to the water line," San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell told CNN's Erica Hill Sunday afternoon.

That is hard to imagine. Did that even happen happen to ships hit by multiple bombs and kamikaze’s in WWII? Even the Forrestall and Enterprise didn’t burn to the water line

Maybe there weren’t enough crew on board to fight the fire?
 
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I read only 110 on board. In my day we were in three section duty. That ain’t 3 sections.
 
"The fire was called away at approx. 8:30 AM, July 12. Approx. 160 Sailors were aboard at the time. @LHD6BHR is going through a maintenance availability and has a crew size of approx. 1000. 18 Sailors have been transferred to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. "

This from"Naval Surface Forces" on Twitter.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
Lots of combustible stuff everywhere. There will be people on the Fleet staffs and Pentagon starting the cost-benefit analysis in repair, rebuild, scrap scenarios. DOD contractors will be lining up.
 
I think everyone I know, active, separated, retired Navy folk, is watching this. A commissioned ship is a living thing to us. To see her so grievously hurt, well, it just hurts something that’s hard to describe. To a sailor, at sea, the ship is home, a community, a weapons platform made to work by the unity of the crew, an identity, and on a happy ship, a team feeling like no other.

History of the first two BONHOMME RICHARDs:

The current:

No doubt a post-major command SWO captain or possibly a 1-star will be given the task of the massive investigation and JAGMAN review. The actions of CDO, Fire Marshal, Chief Engineer, XO and CO will be put under a microscope to evaluate training, systems, policies, procedures before, during, after. The cause will be critical, as will contributing factors, and contractor actions. I have no doubt the CO is sick at heart beyond description.
 
The root cause determination of all @Capt MJ laid out above has to outline a frank, specific, and transparent consideration of how COVID and the social-political environment against which we are responding to it played a part.

The half-assery that's been par for course simply not worthy of our DD/DS's valor or our tax dollars.

When was the last time the USA lost a ship to the waterline? We sink ships to the waterline.
 
One has to wonder how a fire could get so out of control. The first question that comes to mind is: was there an adequate compliment on board and what was their level of training. Most likely a lot fewer sailors and damage control specialists on duty that there would be at sea. Someone’s career is over is my guess.
 
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