USS Bonhomme Richard's Bridge Engulfed In Flames As Fire Rages Into The Night (Updated)

[China]

USS Bonhomme Richard's Bridge Engulfed In Flames As Fire Rages Into The Night (Updated)

 

The USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) continued to burn after the sun had set in San Diego. It now appears that the fire has migrated to the ship's island superstructure with its bridge seen engulfed in flames, which is a very bad thing. Additional large booms were also heard as the blaze continued to rage aboard some 14 hours after it started.

 

 

As it sits now, 17 sailors and four civilians were taken to the hospital as a result of the fire, it is known that at least all the sailors were in stable condition as of around 6:30 pm local time in San Diego. During an evening press conference, Rear Admiral Philip E. Sobeck addressed reporters and stated that there are still 1,000,000 gallons of fuel onboard the vessel, but that is was located below where they thought the blaze emanating from. In addition, fireboats have been pouring water on the ship's hull in order to keep it cool in an attempt to maintain its integrity as the fire wore on. Two teams of firefighters were said to be fighting the fire on the ship, although now that its upper-most decks are engulfed, that may have changed. 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited July 13, 2020 by China

[Dan T.]

The aerial videos looked really bad.  Smoke was pouring from openings all along the length of the ship.  Still no word on a cause...

[dfitzo53]

Holy cow.  At least the sailors seem to all be OK.  Hopefully they can keep it contained and then put it out.

[China]

5 minutes ago, dfitzo53 said:

Holy cow.  At least the sailors seem to all be OK.  Hopefully they can keep it contained and then put it out.

 

 

Quote

San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell told CNN's Erica Hill that the USS Bonhomme Richard could burn for days "down to the water line" after an explosion on Sunday.

 

Link

[China]

 

[skinsmarydu]

Damn, this is really bad. 

[China]

Live feed:

 

 

[nonniey]

Well there goes a couple (few) of billion dollars.

[TheGreatBuzz]

Hope this is allowed.

 

 

[DCSaints_fan]

For those two lazy to look it up, Bonhomme Richard is amphibious assault ship.   Think "small carrier".  It can't launch the F35C(requires a catapult and arrestor) like the bigger cousins, but can launch the F35B which is STOVL as well as the Harrier (which the USN doesn't fly, but pretty sure the UK still does).   But it appears its mostly used for helicopters such as the Cobra.   Maybe someone with more knowledge of the US Navy can correct me. 

 

Laid down in 1995, launched in 1997, so a bit more than 20 years old.   Displaces 41000 tons at full load.   for comparison, the larger carriers, such as the Nimitz class and new Gerald Ford class, displace ~100,000 tons

 

Cost looks to be about $750 million, I think in 2015 dollars. 

Edited July 14, 2020 by DCSaints_fan

[China]

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/nearly-60-injured-as-fire-rages-aboard-uss-bonhomme-richard/

[TheGreatBuzz]

35 minutes ago, DCSaints_fan said:

Maybe someone with more knowledge of the US Navy can correct me. 

 

I'm breaking my self-imposed no posting rule but I thought this was worth it.

 

I deployed aboard the BHR when I was stationed in Guam.  I was on Det 1 referenced in the below article.  Generally this type of ship is called a gator freighter.   Carries a bunch of Marines around in case we need to go destroy some stuff.  It also carries aircraft to support that mission.  You are correct that it is mostly helo's (60's, 53's, H-1's, etc) that it carries but also the F-35 and the V-22 Osprey.  They are also good ships to use in responding to natural disasters.  

 

https://www.pncguam.com/hsc-25-sailors-return-from-deployment/

 

Here is a fact sheet regarding that class of ship.

 

https://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=400&ct=4

 

 

 

 

[China]

Photos: The battle to save the USS Bonhomme Richard

 

--------------------------------

 

Crews make progress against still burning fire on USS Bonhomme Richard

 

Military and civilian emergency crews battled a raging blaze aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego for a fourth day Wednesday.

 

Despite the destructiveness of the explosive, out-of-control fire, Navy officials reported Tuesday that the 22-year-old vessel appeared to have escaped irreparable harm, though all-out efforts to quell the flames and smoldering hot spots were ongoing.

 

“First, we have investigated the four main engineering spaces (of the ship) and found no major damage,” Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck told reporters during a briefing at the naval base south of downtown San Diego. “There is no threat to the fuel tanks, which (are) well below any active fires or heat sources. The ship is stable, and (its) structure is safe.”

 

As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, flight personnel had conducted more than 1,500 helicopter water drops on the ship, a process that was “cooling the superstructure and flight deck, enabling fire crews to get onboard internally to fight the fire,” Navy officials said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Oh snap, this fire still going on?

[dfitzo53]

49 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

Oh snap, this fire still going on?

As of 2 hours ago:

 

https://news.usni.org/2020/07/15/on-day-4-fire-crews-on-uss-bonhomme-richard-battle-hot-spots-and-flare-ups

[China]

Navy chief: US warship’s fate uncertain; damage extensive

 

The USS Bonhomme Richard has extensive structural, electrical and mechanical damage, a top naval chief said Friday after walking into the bowels of the charred warship that burned for more than four days off San Diego.

 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday pledged a thorough investigation into the Navy’s worst U.S. warship fire outside of combat in recent memory. He said the probe will look at what caused the fire as well as whether there were enough sailors on duty when it happened and the circumstances around why a fire suppression system was deactivated when the blaze broke out early Sunday while the ship was docked undergoing maintenance.

 

Click on the link for the full article 

[Gallen5862]

China Thanks for posting the article. Why was the Fire suppression deactivated shortly before the Fire Started. Was any one assigned Fire Guard duty aboard the Ship. I was in the Army National Guard from 1981-1987. Anytime Soldiers were in barracks their were Soldiers pulling fire guard duty. 

[skinsmarydu]

Every single US Navy sailor is qualified in fighting fires, it's absolutely mandatory. The entire Engineering Division is under the classification of "Fireman". 

[China]

After the US Navy’s Bonhomme Richard catastrophe, a far-reaching crackdown on fire safety

 

U.S. Navy brass is telling sailors and contractors to put fire safety at the center of their work in the shipyards and on the waterfront in the wake of a catastrophic fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard.

 

As Naval Sea Systems Command continues its formal assessment of the damage to Bonhomme Richard, the Navy has both sailors across the organization and contractors working on the ships reviewing their procedures and ensuring they are doing everything possible to prevent a second tragedy.

 

Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said the enterprise-wide effort was to prevent a similar event from taking place, a lesson he drew from the Navy’s response to a string of accidents in 7th Fleet in 2017.

 

“Could there be another Bonhomme Richard waiting to happen? If you go back to 2017, who would have predicted we’d have had two collisions of that magnitude within a month?” Gilday said in a July 16 interview with Defense News. “So, I’m not waiting for ‘No. 2’ to decide we have a trend here. In a situation like this, one incident is enough for me to determine that there could be a trend and I’m not going to leave it to chance that there might be.”

 

Contractors and shipbuilders have also been warned by the Navy to take fire safety seriously. In the days following the Bonhomme Richard fire, two minor fires – one on board the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge at General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard and another on the Navy’s future carrier John F. Kennedy at Newport News shipbuilding – have curtailed work and prompted a doubling down on safety.

 

The Bonhomme Richard fire, which experts fear may have damaged the “big deck” amphib beyond repair, raised troubling questions about how prepared sailors are to combat one of their most fearsome enemies: a shipboard fire, a threat they are trained to deal with from their earliest days in Boot Camp.

 

In a letter this week from Gilday to all Navy flag officers and top enlisted leaders, he detailed how a series of explosions and a 1,200-degree inferno caused “extensive damage” to 11 of Bonhomme Richard’s 14 decks.

 

“There is fire and water damage, to varying degrees, on 11 of 14 decks,” Gilday wrote. “With the flight deck as a reference, I walked sections of the ship 5 levels below and had the opportunity to examine the superstructure.

 

“The island is nearly gutted, as are sections of some of the decks below; some perhaps, nearly encompassing the 844 ft length and 106 ft beam of the ship ([Naval Sea System Command’s] detailed assessment is ongoing). Sections of the flight deck are warped/bulging.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

Sailor eyed in possible arson on Navy ship that burned for days

 

Investigators believe a massive fire that erupted on the Navy ship the USS Bonhomme Richard may have been intentionally set, and a sailor has been identified as a possible suspect, two defense officials confirmed Wednesday.

 

The new details in the investigation of the July fire were reported Wednesday by KGTV-TV of San Diego, where the amphibious assault ship is based.

 

Two defense officials confirmed to NBC News that investigators now suspect arson. But the investigation continues, and it has not been determined whether the sailor is an actual suspect.

The sailor was not named, and no additional details were released.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

They should keel haul that guy. 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

1 hour ago, PleaseBlitz said:

They should keel haul that guy. 

Treason...

[China]

Navy sailor faces court martial for blaze that destroyed USS Bonhomme Richard

 

A sailor accused of retaliating against the U.S. Navy by setting the USS Bonhomme Richard on fire two years ago -- basically destroying the $1.5 billion warship -- was scheduled to begin his court martial on Monday.

 

Navy Seaman Apprentice Ryan Sawyer Mays faces charges of aggravated arson and willful hazarding of a vessel at the court martial, which is being held in San Diego.

 

The charges stem from the fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard in July 2020, which military prosecutors argue that Mays started because he'd washed out as a Navy SEAL candidate.

 

At the time of the fire, the warship was undergoing a $250 million upgrade and had more than 100 sailors on board. About half of them were treated for smoke inhalation and heat exposure, but there were no serious injuries.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Fergasun]

 This case does not sound open and shut.  Seems like there are minimal eyewitnesses and they don't have much evidence other than "we think he walked into that space".  

 

At the same time... could be that no one goes into that space.