Fire, Fire, Fire...

OldRetSWO said:
Very tough situation. As a SWO, this hits very close to home. I've experienced fires aboard ship both at sea and
in port and it is scary indeed. As a fairly junior LT, I was CDO (Command Duty Officer) of my ship when we had a main space
fire and explosion - a fire in one of our main engineering spaces at about midnight on a Saturday night and luckily, we managed
get it out in an hour or so with the only injury being a bruised shoulder on one of my guys. In the aftermath, I kind of lost sight of
which was worse - actually getting through the fire itself or dealing with the investigation, the staff and others who all had to get
THEIR view of what happened.

One relevant insight to SAF - we'd lost electrical power and comms were difficult so I used runners/messengers and for that I grabbed
the 10 or so USNA and NROTC midshipmen who happened to be aboard and used them to get information to Damage Control Central,
the Quarterdeck and other places as I moved around the ship. They were also extra eyes and ears when I needed them for that.

This fire is reported to have started in Lower Vehicle which is a large garage of sorts fairly low in the ship. It's not a main space so the
Engineering Plant was probably not involved but it is large and frequently used to store large quantities of stuff and in a yard period
like they were in, it could have a lot of materiel temporarily placed there as work was being done elsewhere. That space has installed
sprinklers but they are often disabled during yard periods like this one. A common source for shipboard fires in yard periods is welding.
Because of this danger, all welding operations must have people standing fire watch in each space around the welding. while this is
not known at this time, I can tell you that many past fires have been traced to fire watch "issues".
Again, in this case, once the fire established in Lower Vehicle, it likely moved up into the berthing and administrative spaces that
are located in the decks above. When fires get up into vents and cableways, then can move and are very hard to cut off/put out.
Click to expand...
 
The smoke billowing from The Bonhomme Richard was not the first thing I noticed while watching the aerial footage of the fire. What stood out to me were the amount of storage containers on the forward part of the flight deck on landing spots two and four. This indicated a good size maintenance period with a lot of shipyard workers working everywhere throughout the ship (sailors referred to them as “sand crabs”). During these periods the workers seemingly outnumber the sailors on duty. The shipyard workers were probably from nearby NASSCO, the Navy’s contractor in San Diego.

Every sailor knows the four classes of fires: ALFA, BRAVO, CHARLIE and DELTA. Each class of fire is fought differently. The only goal is to save the ship. The tugs spraying water onto indicated DELTA – hot metal or potential combustible metals fire - keep the metal cool. I imagined every class of fire in the footage and wondered how my CWO4 Fire Marshall shipmate would have fought it. Nothing gets the adrenaline going in a sailor than a fire on their ship.
 
It’s been interesting reading social media and getting photos and videos from friends there. The other part (don’t think I have seen this mentioned) that I think is commendable is how quickly they got two other ships underway while navigating through all that smoke. This will be one of those investigations that could drive policy change, a reminder to all for strict adherence to SOP and danger is every where in service. Good luck to the crews and all battling this.
 
If that fire at the island is hot enough to melt steel and make that structure fail, I would think there is some concern growing about their magazine.
That is, if I knew where the magazine was on a Wasp-class AAS.

I understand the spraying the hull down to mitigate heat. I wonder if there are people on board unloading everything explosive. That would be one crappy job, since they probably have the HVAC turned off, right now.
 
That makes me feel better for everyone within a mile of pierside.
 
1594664529656.png

USS Decatur sailors going in to help with the firefighting efforts.
 
1594664700407.png
Here is the island ablaze, last night.
 
Devil Doc said:
It is terrifying. I’ve been in three. Two at sea. One was a main space fire that took awhile to put out. The one inport was a Class Alpha fire in CPO berthing. A friend of mine was the IDC on the Samuel B. Roberts the day it hit the mine. Lots of people are still walking the planet today because of him. One of his therapies was to replay the event to me a couple times a year. The CO ordered the firefighting to be stopped for a period of time. They were putting so much water on the fire that the ship was in danger of sinking.
Click to expand...
As you know I am originally from the U.K. I remember vividly the footage of the troopship Sir Galahad getting hit during the Falklands war. The ship was carrying ammunition as well as phosphorus bombs and thousands of gallons of diesel and petrol. The Welsh Guards lost a total of 48 men killed and 97 were wounded who were aboard.
 
One of my closest friends is a retired Navy SWO-qualified Engineering Duty Officer (EDO) captain, whose final job in the Navy was overseeing maintenance and repair for the big decks. She says the consensus among her EDO shipmates is the high temps and stresses on the hull may have left the hull plates structurally weakened, and with all the other damage, may not support a repair case.

Artificial coral reef.
 
Updated coverage below, local news and Navy official feed
It has also been confirmed ship-wide fire suppression systems were secured, due to the maintenance period. That’s often a contributing factor in shipyard and pier side maintenance and repair situation fires. The investigation will look hard at fire watches in place.


We are watching a commissioned ship in her death throes. Part of me still hopes, but the wounds may be too severe.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top