Sailor accused of setting a billion dollar warship on fire was found NOT GUILTY today

[Nevilledog]

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Megan Rose
@MegMcCloskey
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VERDICT: Not Guilty.

The sailor accused of setting a billion dollar warship on fire was found innocent of arson today in military court.

Read more about Navy's prosecution of him here.

propublica.org
The Navy Accused Him of Arson. Its Own Investigation Showed Widespread Safety Failures.
After the USS Bonhomme Richard fire, investigators found missing fire hoses, a broken sprinkler system and other systemic failures. The Navy is still accusing a sailor of arson, against the advice of...
9:34 AM · Sep 30, 2022

https://www.propublica.org/article/bonhomme-richard-fire-safety-lapses

[jimfields33]

1. Wow! They're putting the blame squarely on the leadership of the ship.

Apparently wasn’t up to fire code. I don’t know if the sailor was guilty or not, but the ship should’ve been ready for fires.

[mercuryblues]

2. Read the article

He said he was somewhere else on the ship. The only witness that put him near the scene was most likely lying.

The fire started in a room that held...

"during the overhaul was being used as a catchall, according to testimony and reports. On the day of the fire, the lower V had been packed with two fueled forklifts, a man lift, pallets of hand sanitizer, lithium batteries and other combustibles, wood beams, scaffolding, rope and thick, tall cardboard crates, some stacked two high."

Combined with non-working fire extinguishers, missing or unusable fire hoses, sprinklers etc. it's no surprise the ship was completely lost to a fire.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Lithium batteries for consumer products must be closely monitored.

One would think the United States Navy also would follow that precaution for its own lithium batteries.

[mercuryblues]

7. I was shocked

that they would keep the forklifts with gas in them and lithium batteries in the same storeroom, along with pallets of sanitizer, which contains alcohol. What could possibly go wrong?

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Same Here

A flammable metal that can't be put out with water right next to combustible liquids.
Did the person that decided to do this keep a gasoline can next to their water heater, too?
Man, is that dumb.

[mercuryblues]

11. The only that my missing

Was a “smoking area” sign on the door.

[sarisataka]

9. What? No oily rags?

That space was a fire waiting to happen.

[Coventina]

12. Next to a hot plate with frayed wires!

on edit: typo

[FreeState]

3. Hopefully they pay for our lungs too

It smoked for days - we’re 4 miles away and it stunk to high heaven.

[crickets]

4. The evidence of systemic failure

in such a basic and necessary thing as firefighting is appalling. The entire crew is fortunate that no fire occurred while at sea. They would have been utterly screwed.

It's also a bit horrifying that NCIS tried so hard to pin the fire on one man, a man who may have had nothing to do with it at all.

[sl8]

13. Firefighting in the yards can be pretty tough.

Watertight doors blocked open, intermittent fire mains, etc..

[crickets]

14. Yes. It was so upsetting to read about lack of maintenance

for fire hoses and other equipment, lack of proper fire drills leading to a poor response when an actual fire occurred. This included not knowing or bothering to close doors that might have kept the fire from spreading. What a sad waste. As I said before, the only good aspect in the whole catastrophe is that it didn't happen at sea. The loss of life would have been awful.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[Nevilledog]

8. New ProPublica article

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ProPublica
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Much of the court-martial, which started Sept. 19, centered around whether a crime had even been committed.

propublica.org
Judge Finds Sailor Not Guilty in Fire That Destroyed $1.2 Billion Navy Ship
Even though a separate Navy review found that 34 people, including five admirals, contributed to or directly led to the loss of the USS Bonhomme Richard, Ryan Mays is the only person to have faced a...
1:00 PM · Sep 30, 2022

https://www.propublica.org/article/bonhomme-richard-fire-navy-mays-verdict

A military judge found Seaman Recruit Ryan Mays not guilty on Friday of setting fire to a $1.2 billion Navy ship.

Mays, 21, had stood trial on charges of aggravated arson and willfully hazarding a vessel for the four-day blaze that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, in 2020.

The acquittal marks the end of a two-year ordeal for Mays, who spent 55 days in the brig after he was arrested.

“I can’t get everything I’ve lost back, but today is the start of my new life,” Mays told ProPublica in a statement. “I am grateful that the military judge saw me for who I am: an innocent man who wanted to serve his country. This fire was traumatic for me and a lot of other sailors. This court-martial is an added layer of trauma.”

On July 12, 2020, the Bonhomme Richard was moored at a San Diego Navy base and undergoing a major overhaul. That morning, an area of the ship known as the “lower V” caught fire, and the blaze quickly spread throughout the vessel. The warship was lost and had to be decommissioned.

*snip*

[Emile]

15. Always blame the little guy. Lot of trucking companies

blame drivers for accidents, when a lot times it is equipment failure.