1,000-degree blaze continues to rage aboard aboard Navy ship in San Diego

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

More than 400 sailors are working to put out the massive fire that continues to rage aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego and Navy officials are unclear how long the blaze might continue to burn.

The fire has brought down the amphibious assault ship's forward mast and caused other damage to the ship's superstructure that rises above its flight deck.

"There is a tremendous amount of heat underneath and that's where it's -- it's flashing up -- also forward, closer to the bow again there's a heat source and we're trying to get to that as well," Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3 said at a news conference Monday in San Diego.

Sobeck said that the temperatures in the fire's heat sources are reaching as high as 1,000 degrees. With temperatures that high, the sailors are rotating in on 15-minute firefighting shifts.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/1000-degree-blaze-continues-to-rage-aboard-aboard-navy-ship-in-san-diego/ar-BB16H1yW?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=DELLDHP

[Nevilledog]

1. When do they just throw up their hands and scuttle it?

I know jackshit about ship stuff so that could be a really stupid question.

[marble falls]

3. The Navy scuttles darn few of its ships ever. There is also 1 million gal of fuel on it.

[Nevilledog]

5. Yikes!

[marble falls]

6. They claim the fuel is far enough from the fire. My thought is if there was any thought of ...

scuttling, they'd be removing fuel, putting up floating containment booms.

[Nevilledog]

8. How'd you like to be fighting that knowing there's that much gas?

[marble falls]

11. Now imagine that at sea figthing flames under fire on battle from planes ...

We lost 13 or so carriers by sinking by the Japanese in WWII. One of those tried to scuttle but the Japanese sank it.

[Baclava]

17. I dont think that harbor is deep enough for it to sink all the way? Its gonna melt, its aluminium

[FBaggins]

19. Not aluminum

Some of the newer ships are aluminum... but the Wasp class is steel. It's highly unlikely to sink and isn't going to melt.

[Baclava]

21. Oh OK, I thought it was one of the new ones, looks like its still melting though

[FBaggins]

22. Maybe some of the superstructure

But the hull is about 20,000 tons of steel.

Interestingly... one of the new LCSs appears to be at a neighboring pier. That's one of the aluminum hulls. They've reportedly had no end of trouble with them corroding.

[Baclava]

23. Fire still going strong, how long can it burn?

[Amishman]

20. can't scuttle it even if they wanted to

its docked, there is all of 8 feet of water under the keel.

Can't tow it out as the path out to open water would take it past down town San Diego and also past several other critical naval bases. If it were to sink in the channel on the way out it we would lose the use of several critical bases for months.

[albacore]

2. More information from DUers in the know...

... about modern Navy ships.

I read in the 1990s that the modern aluminum superstructures burn like a muthah.
Is that ship melting?

Also... what was the explosion? And what continues to burn so hot?

Come on... there must be a few Squids who can clue us in.

[ornotna]

12. They use a lot of magnesium too

At least they did when I was in the Navy in the late 70's.

[hack89]

13. The ship isn't melting in the true sense

most of the ship, including everything from the flight deck down is steel. I think the superstructure may have some aluminum.

That ship is packed with flammable/explosive material - oil, solvents, high pressure oxygen systems, ammunition. There is plenty to burn and explode.

[albacore]

16. If she was being refit, wouldn't the ammo and movable explosive materials have been removed?

Refits are notoriously dangerous because of all the welding, etc.

The fire is probably not the fault of the Rust Pickers, but it sure seems like a lot of Navy ships have been having problems. The Littoral Combat Ships being an example. And the Gerald R. Ford.

[hack89]

18. Not necessarily.

For an extended yard period yes lasting a year or so, yes. For a short maintenance availability lasting a couple of months then no. Not unless they are actually working on the magazines.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

24. I was in the USCG and my ship was in dry dock a couple of times,

when someone was welding we had some one else on fire watch standing behind the welder with a fire extinguisher, if something caught on fire you put it out before it spread.

Al

[malaise]

4. How many ships have had serious accidents since the Con took over? n/t

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Too many.

Snip...

Three-star Adm. Thomas Copeman, who from 2012 to 2014 was in charge of the fitness of the Navy’s ships for combat, had made clear to his superiors in 2013 that it was getting harder to “look the troops in the eye and say, ‘Hey, just do it.’”

Copeman said he was pushed out of his job after he spoke out. But he doesn’t regret it.
“If you're an admiral in the Navy,” he said, “you may have to make that decision to send people into combat, and you better not have blood on your hands the rest of your life because you didn't do everything you could in peacetime to make them ready.”

These firsthand accounts by Aucoin, Copeman and others are supported by thousands of pages of internal Navy records, public reports and confidential investigations obtained by ProPublica: a 2010 report that all but predicted the accidents; data kept by admirals vividly demonstrating how thin the 7th Fleet was stretched; a 13,000-page investigation that lays bare the extraordinary risks commanders were willing to have their sailors face.

Continues...

https://features.propublica.org/navy-accidents/us-navy-crashes-japan-cause-mccain/

[malaise]

10. Thanks for this

Should be an OP with this latest one in flames

[Sedona]

7. Get me Malcolm Nance

paging Malcolm Nance.

I just knew he'd have it on his Twitter

Link to tweet

?s=20

[FreeState]

14. And San Diegos air quality is disgusting now

Yesterday was hot and you couldn't keep your windows open. Todays a little cooler but it still stinks to high heaven (and I am a good 8 miles away from the fire).

[Chainfire]

15. Sailors are firefighters

When I was in the Navy, we all went to firefighting school and practiced firefighting very often. They used to tell us that far more Sailors died from fire than drowning.

My guess is that they will contain and put out the fire.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. PINO's Not Concerned

Soon, it will be down to zero.
Like a miracle, the fire will disappear.