Most of the sailors injured in a massive fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard Sunday suffered from smoke inhalation, Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, told reporters Sunday evening in San Diego, where the ship had been burning for nearly 12 hours."Nothing toxic"...suure.
...
While the precise cause remained unknown Sunday night, Sobeck said there was “nothing toxic” in the ship, and that the black smoke billowing from the amphib all day was caused by office and berthing items burning.
The fire is believed to have started below those spaces, in the lower cargo hold of the ship, known as the “Deep V,” Sobeck said.
It is a “huge open area where you store a lot of (Marine Corps) equipment and everything else,” he said. “That’s where we believe it was started.”
I've not seen any reports that the fire is out. The longer it burns, the more likely that the ship will end up being scrapped, like the USS Miami was.
Edited to add: She's still burning.
She was finishing up a major overhaul that cost a quarter-billion.
Given they currently have a couple of choppers reported as dropping buckets of water on the ship/fire, I pretty sure she’s toast.
ReplyDeleteSan Diego is recommending people stay inside and is “evaluating” the composition of the smoke. I saw an earlier report that SDFD crews were ordered off the ship after some of the earlier firefighting efforts, which seems suggestive too.
On a related note, just mulling over security clearances and damage control crews, and wondering.
Well, at least it didn't happen at sea.
ReplyDeleteI watched a number of boats shooting water at the hull of the ship. Is that actually helping any? I am not familiar with shipboard firefighting. Later on, the was a larger boat shooting water at least 'near' to the deck from the camera angle and distance.
ReplyDeleteJust how do they get water to an interior fire onboard a ship?
What a mess.
w3ski
The ship's island is engulfed and the mast has slumped forward. Seems to be a rash of fires during renovations. Notre Dame, San Gabriel Mission, Bon Homme Richard.
ReplyDeleteI think I read that there is a million gallons of gasoline (really? more likely Jet-A) deep in the hull, that a major part of the effort is to keep that from going up.
ReplyDeleteStewart, more likely DFM, unless they standardized on JP-5 for everything (Jet-A is civilian stuff).
ReplyDeletew3ski, the water directed at the side of the hull is probably to keep the steel from softening/melting.
Right on keeping the hull cool. One of the great lessons that comes with using a hot torch is how easily steel bends once it's hot. I've seen a steel trussed roof after a fire that looks like cooked spaghetti.
ReplyDeleteI don't know San Diego well, I wonder where this is in relation to the USS Midway. Got to tour that once when a cruise we were leaving on was delayed, and it was a great experience.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Richard is a geared Westinghouse steam turbine design, so you got the bunker fuel for that...only LHD-8 has the gas turbines. There’s JP-5 for the aviation wing, and probably a pretty big diesel bunker for all the standard vehicles that get embarked, but I can’t find a reference. Not sure the U.S. military really has much use for gasoline these days, but a small store wouldn’t surprise me.
ReplyDeleteThe Navy hates gasoline. It hasn’t been stored in quantity aboard ships since the Stoof was retired.
ReplyDeleteNothing toxic? I don't know what kind of materials are involved inside a ship. In my own personal experience sitting on a piece of foam rubber while welding during the winter when a sesame seed sized ball of red hot metal hit the foam I could not breathe for as much as ten to fifteen seconds. It seems to me that most or all synthetic materials are toxic when they are burning.
ReplyDeletePaint is toxic enough.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm ex-Army. What is Stoof? Tried to google it, would keep trying but it's 0333hrs...thanks for the extensive info...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eb-misfit.blogspot.com/2020/06/your-sunday-morning-big-prop-noise.html
Delete