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2020-07-13 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
The Bonnie Dick is Burning.... 21 injured at Naval Base San Diego
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Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2020-07-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ]  Top

#1 ...An update from friends in San Diego and otherwise in the Business: the BHD is apparently totally engulfed in flames. The fire spread upwards to the island and the bridge, and God alone knows how deeply downwards in the hull. At this point, the ship is most likely a total loss. This will be the largest combatant hull (40,500 tons) ever lost for any reason by the USN.

The new America class is starting to come online (2 new ships with 9 more ordered) but there have been quiet rumors that the first two - America and Tripoli - were being shopped to South Korea. That may be on hold now if for no other reason than we can't afford to lose another big deck.

Mike
Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2020-07-13 05:39||   2020-07-13 05:39|| Front Page Top

#2 Firefighters battle to stop one million gallons of fuel and ammunition detonating on USS Bonhomme Richard and warn it could 'burn down to the water' after explosion during routine maintenance at San Diego Naval Base
Posted by Skidmark 2020-07-13 06:10||   2020-07-13 06:10|| Front Page Top

#3 Navy officials say no ordnance were onboard the ship at the time of the fire. A 1,800-yard perimeter has been set up around the ship as crews battled the flames, Sobeck said.

Sobeck added during a 6 p.m. press conference that about a million gallons of gasoline are onboard the vessel — well below the fire — and crews were working all Sunday to prevent the fire from reaching that area of the ship.
Posted by Frank G 2020-07-13 07:08||   2020-07-13 07:08|| Front Page Top

#4 One wonders if it was sabotage. Where were the damage control parties. As former Navy, we all went through shipboard fire fighting. They could have broke out the OBA's, Applicators and fought this fire like it is taught in school. To lose a hull is total BS.
Posted by Cloting B. Hayes6173 2020-07-13 07:26||   2020-07-13 07:26|| Front Page Top

#5 #4 One wonders if it was sabotage. Where were the damage control parties. As former Navy, we all went through shipboard fire fighting. They could have broke out the OBA's, Applicators and fought this fire like it is taught in school. To lose a hull is total BS.
Posted by: Cloting B. Hayes6173 2020-07-13 07:26

...There were only about 200 folks aboard BHD when this took place - and most of them were shipyard workers. On top of that, I'm hearing that the firefighting foam system on the hangar deck - where this mess started - was tagged out due to the work being done. Occam's Razor tells us that the simplest explanation is almost always the accurate one, and I'm guessing that 'accident' is the explanation. A billion dollar accident that just whacked an appreciable fraction of our amphibious strike power, but an accident nevertheless.

Mike
Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2020-07-13 07:34||   2020-07-13 07:34|| Front Page Top

#6 Chinese and now Americans. Doesn't anybody know how to play this game?
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-07-13 07:42||   2020-07-13 07:42|| Front Page Top

#7 No way to get that gas out of these ship from outside I suppose?
Posted by gorb 2020-07-13 07:47||   2020-07-13 07:47|| Front Page Top

#8 Amazing how there are no news.
Posted by Thorong Grundy1520 2020-07-13 08:25||   2020-07-13 08:25|| Front Page Top

#9 Still on fire. They are doing Helo water drops this AM
Posted by Frank G 2020-07-13 09:37||   2020-07-13 09:37|| Front Page Top

#10 Thirty miles north of the ship the air smells like an electrical fire, much different from the smell of brush fires that we get in October but no less disturbing.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2020-07-13 12:10||   2020-07-13 12:10|| Front Page Top

#11 I'm perfectly willing to assume this was an accident, but (a) we just lost a major fleet unit and (b) the Navy is having an awful lot of accidents lately (McCain, Fitzgerald, etc., and I suppose you could consider the LCS class an "accident".) Worse, if the Dems win, it's not real clear that we build another ship for a long time.
Posted by Matt 2020-07-13 12:12||   2020-07-13 12:12|| Front Page Top

#12 Worse, if the Dems win, it's not real clear that we build another ship for a long time.

If Dems win, you won't need to.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-07-13 12:16||   2020-07-13 12:16|| Front Page Top

#13 USS Bonhomme Richard? The good-natured Dick? Who named that ship; Barney Frank?
Posted by JohnQC 2020-07-13 13:09||   2020-07-13 13:09|| Front Page Top

#14 ^ Named for John Paul Jones' ship, which was donated to the cause by France. The present one is the third ship to bear that name.
Posted by M. Murcek 2020-07-13 13:46||   2020-07-13 13:46|| Front Page Top

#15 Here are some comments from a professional.
Posted by Matt 2020-07-13 13:49||   2020-07-13 13:49|| Front Page Top

#16 Ah, Franklin (Poor Richard's Almanack)?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-07-13 14:15||   2020-07-13 14:15|| Front Page Top

#17 Doesn't San Diego have fireboats anymore?
Posted by 3dc 2020-07-13 17:47||   2020-07-13 17:47|| Front Page Top

#18 Seeking Cure For Ignorance commented in the O Club:

Re #4 "To lose a hull is total BS."

No it's possible for an otherwise intact hull to be a total loss. Keep in mind it's a warship and as such the hull has to use special grades of steel in order to withstand torpedos and missiles. A massive fire will weaken the steel to the point where (almost) a BB gun and shoot a pellet thru the hull, in which case, it's unsuitable to be a warship and thus be declared a total loss.

So not BS after all.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-07-13 17:55||   2020-07-13 17:55|| Front Page Top

#19 I have no idea why he was unable to post the above here.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-07-13 17:56||   2020-07-13 17:56|| Front Page Top

#20 Dunno, either, TW... and yes, 3DC there were fire tugs onsite, keep in mind it was berthed so only one side was accessible by tug
Posted by Frank G 2020-07-13 18:20||   2020-07-13 18:20|| Front Page Top

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