USS Bonhomme Richard on fire at Naval Base San Diego

[Winston]

Live feed:

USS Bonhomme Richard on fire at Naval Base San Diego - July 12, 2020
12 Jul 2020



Launched: 14 March 1997
Commissioned: 15 August 1998

Name: Wasp class
Builders: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Operators: United States Navy
Preceded by: Tarawa class
Succeeded by: America class
Cost: Roughly $1.5 billion[1]
In commission: 1989–present
Completed: 8
Active: 8

USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, and the third ship of the United States Navy to bear the name. She was named in honor of John Paul Jones' famous frigate, which he had named in French "Good Man Richard," in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the U.S. Ambassador to France at the time; "Richard" is derived from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac.

The primary mission of Bonhomme Richard is to embark, deploy and land elements of a Marine landing force in amphibious assault operations by helicopter, landing craft and amphibious vehicle, and if needed, to act as a light aircraft carrier.

Bonhomme Richard is in active service and is the flagship for Expeditionary Strike Group Three.

You always have to wonder if some events might be related...

Are three mysterious explosions in Iran linked? - analysis
Three mysterious incidents, linked by explosions – at least two of them at secretive nuclear and weapons facilities – have rocked Iran in the past week.
JULY 3, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/i...ous-explosions-linked-in-iran-analysis-633587
Operation Ababil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ababil
Operation Ababil was a series of cyber attacks starting in 2012, targeting various American financial institutions and carried out by a group calling itself the Cyber fighters of Izz Ad-Din Al Qassam.

The cyber attacks, or more specifically denial of service attacks, were launched by the Cyber fighters of Izz Ad-Din Al Qassam also known as Qassam Cyber Fighters. The group announced the attacks on September 18, 2012 on Pastebin where they criticized Israel and the United States and justified the attacks as a response to the Innocence of Muslims video released by controversial American pastor Terry Jones. Their targets included the New York Stock Exchange as well as a number of banks including J.P. Morgan Chase. The result of the attacks was a limited disruption of the targeted websites. The attacks ended on Oct 23, 2012 because of the Eid al-Adha holiday at which point they offered to speak to the media through e-mail.

On September 21, 2012, the Washington Post reported[4] that the attacks originated not from a hacktivist group but from the government of Iran and cited U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman as one who was a proponent of this idea. Lieberman told C-Span that he believed the Iranian government was sponsoring the group's attacks on US banks in retaliation for Western economic sanctions. An early report by Dancho Danchev found the amateurish "outdated and virtually irrelevant technical skills" of the attack suspicious. But Michael Smith, senior security evangelist at Akamai, found the size of the attacks—65 gigabits of traffic per second—more consistent with a state actor (such as Iran) than with a typical hacktivist denial of service attack which would be less than 2 gigabits/second.

 

[DaveW6DPS]

18 transported to hospital; 7 treated and released.

 

[crossfire]

It looks like it was by being worked on

 

[Peartree]

Today's update. Still on fire. May burn "down to the waterline." She will sail again.

Despite the damage, the ship has endured in the fire.
"We're absolutely going to make sure it sails again," Sobeck said, "Right now we're going to fight the fire and then we'll work on understanding what exactly happened to make sure she sails as best as possible in a very near time."

Efforts currently seem to be to water the exterior in order to save the hull.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/us/uss-bonhomme-richard-fire-monday/index.html

 

[Winston]

USS Bonhomme Richard's Bridge Engulfed In Flames As Fire Rages Into The Night (Updated)
The blaze appears to have migrated to the ship's superstructure that is packed full of sensors, communications gear, weapons, and much more.
JULY 13, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...gulfed-in-flames-as-fire-rages-into-the-night
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.

It still isn't clear exactly what started the fire, with the Admiral only stating that it was thought to have begun in the lower vehicle storage area. He also noted that the "ashy" smoke wasn't highly toxic or a danger to downtown San Diego as it didn't have the characteristics of burning toxic materials, like fuel.

The future of the vessel, which is in the middle of its service life, is likely more in question now after seeing that the fire is burning missionized spaces in its island, which also points to the fire now being far more widespread than originally indicated. This is despite the Admiral stating that the ship would be repaired and would sail again, which seemed like a dubious claim at this time.

The island is also packed with the ship's most critical electronics, including its radars, electronic warfare arrays, and many of its communications systems. Just forward of the island is a large structure that houses half of the ship's Rolling Airframe Missile and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile launchers. One of the ship's Phalanx close-in weapon systems is also mounted atop the island itself.

 

[boatgeek]

Today's update. Still on fire. May burn "down to the waterline." She will sail again.


Efforts currently seem to be to water the exterior in order to save the hull.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/us/uss-bonhomme-richard-fire-monday/index.html

I did engineering work for a 270' factory trawler that had two decks burn in the Bering Sea a few years ago. That fire was extinguished in about 8 hours and destroyed two decks of crew accommodations. The rest of the accommodations and the pilothouse had to be gutted because of smoke damage, but the fish processing plant and the engine room (aka the expensive stuff) were completely untouched. That fire very nearly totaled the boat because repairing the structure after a fire is an extremely time consuming and expensive process. Every bulkhead that the fire touched will be buckled and will need to be replaced. Even if you can save the hull surface, you'll probably need to cut out big pieces of it to get the new structure in.

I very highly doubt that the Bonhomme Richard will sail again. Once you add in destruction of the electronics in the island and likely destruction of the berthing quarters, there's not much left worth saving. You can build a new one of the most recent design for less money than rebuilding this one.

I would be happy to be wrong.

 

[Peartree]

I did engineering work for a 270' factory trawler that had two decks burn in the Bering Sea a few years ago. That fire was extinguished in about 8 hours and destroyed two decks of crew accommodations. The rest of the accommodations and the pilothouse had to be gutted because of smoke damage, but the fish processing plant and the engine room (aka the expensive stuff) were completely untouched. That fire very nearly totaled the boat because repairing the structure after a fire is an extremely time consuming and expensive process. Every bulkhead that the fire touched will be buckled and will need to be replaced. Even if you can save the hull surface, you'll probably need to cut out big pieces of it to get the new structure in.

I very highly doubt that the Bonhomme Richard will sail again. Once you add in destruction of the electronics in the island and likely destruction of the berthing quarters, there's not much left worth saving. You can build a new one of the most recent design for less money than rebuilding this one.

I would be happy to be wrong.

Yeah, I was skeptical the admiral's statement even before th

I did engineering work for a 270' factory trawler that had two decks burn in the Bering Sea a few years ago. That fire was extinguished in about 8 hours and destroyed two decks of crew accommodations. The rest of the accommodations and the pilothouse had to be gutted because of smoke damage, but the fish processing plant and the engine room (aka the expensive stuff) were completely untouched. That fire very nearly totaled the boat because repairing the structure after a fire is an extremely time consuming and expensive process. Every bulkhead that the fire touched will be buckled and will need to be replaced. Even if you can save the hull surface, you'll probably need to cut out big pieces of it to get the new structure in.

I very highly doubt that the Bonhomme Richard will sail again. Once you add in destruction of the electronics in the island and likely destruction of the berthing quarters, there's not much left worth saving. You can build a new one of the most recent design for less money than rebuilding this one.

I would be happy to be wrong.

Yeah, I was skeptical of the admiral's statement even before the more recent news that the fire had spread to the island. I think maybe he was overly hopeful because losing her is going to leave a big hole in a lot of planning.

 

[DaveW6DPS]

It is still burning, and dozens have been treated for smoke inhalation and heat stress.

 

[fyrwrxz]

On shore flow has wafted this at least 50 miles inland. Smells toxic. Very unpleasant. Hope the workers and sailors come out okay.

 

[OverTheTop]

Bummer. Ship can be replaced, but not people. Hope everyone comes through with a clean bill of health.

 

[boatgeek]

From reporting this morning, it sounds like the fire started in the cargo hold (where tanks and landing craft are kept) in a pile of construction debris. I would suspect spontaneous combustion of oily rags, but that's just speculation on my part. The Halon system in the hold was out of service for maintenance and it sounds like fire doors were left open throughout the ship allowing rapid spread of the fire. That's not uncommon on commercial boats during shipyard maintenance periods, but I don't know what the official Navy practices are.

I laughed a little bit when the Navy spokesperson said that there wasn't anything toxic on board. That's a steaming pile of BS--there's an awful lot of toxic stuff on any ship, and burning plastic is definitely bad stuff. On a side note, we started adding the NFPA diamond symbols on fire safety plans for the boats we work with--it speeds up the fire department response a lot if they have a comfort level with the level of risk that they're sending firefighters into. They'll go into anything to save people, but once the people are accounted for they'll stand down and make sure they know the hazards in spaces. And that's how it should be.

 

[Daddyisabar]

The image of the forward mast collapse is reminding of December 7, 1941.

 

[DaveW6DPS]

Still burning, and the casualty count is still going up. Thank God it didn't happen at sea.

 

[Winston]

The Bushehr region is home to a vital Iranian nuclear power plant.

JULY 15, 2020
Seven ships catch fire at southern Iranian port

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-fire-bushehr-idUSKCN24G1U7
(Reuters) - At least seven ships have caught fire at the port of Bushehr in southern Iran, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

No casualties have been reported so far, the agency said.

There have been several explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities since late June.

Navy Says At Least One Fire Continues To Burn On The USS Bonhomme Richard
The service says the ship is stable and structurally sound, but that it's too early to assess its salvageability.
JULY 14, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...continues-to-burn-on-the-uss-bonhomme-richard
The key new details from this latest press conference are:

The ship is stable and the structure is safe.
No major damage to the ship's four main engineering spaces.
No threat to the ship's fuel tanks at present.
The fuel tanks are well below any of the remaining active fires or heat sources, so any risk to them at this point is low.
The ship has salt water-filled compensation tanks that also help keep the fuel tanks cool.
There is at least one active fire in a forward area of the ship.
Firefighters had been unable to get to those spaces until today.
There is another heat source that could be another fire aft.
These two areas are isolated from each other.
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Three (HSC-3), based at nearby Naval Air Station North Island, has conducted more than 1,200 water bucket drops, in total.
In addition to other external firefighting operations, these drops have been essential in allowing firefighters to actually get on the ship.
61 personnel have been injured, in total, so far, 38 sailors and 23 civilians.
None of those individuals are hospitalized.
An explosion occurred while the crew was securing the space where the initial fire had broken out before they could safely energize the fire suppression system.
The fire spread rapidly from the front to the rear of the ship.
Navy is working with San Diego authorities to step up monitoring of potential adverse environmental impacts.
Coast Guard is prepared to respond to any potential environmental issues, including an oil spill.
No visible evidence of oil spill at present.
Hope that all fires will be out within the next 24 hours.
Too early to tell the full extent of the damage.

 

[boatgeek]

...

In the small world department, I designed the tug in the lower right of that image. That water cannon puts out about 1000 gallons per minute.

 

[Peartree]

The Bushehr region is home to a vital Iranian nuclear power plant.

JULY 15, 2020
Seven ships catch fire at southern Iranian port

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-fire-bushehr-idUSKCN24G1U7
(Reuters) - At least seven ships have caught fire at the port of Bushehr in southern Iran, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

No casualties have been reported so far, the agency said.

There have been several explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities since late June.

Navy Says At Least One Fire Continues To Burn On The USS Bonhomme Richard
The service says the ship is stable and structurally sound, but that it's too early to assess its salvageability.
JULY 14, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...continues-to-burn-on-the-uss-bonhomme-richard
The key new details from this latest press conference are:

The ship is stable and the structure is safe.
No major damage to the ship's four main engineering spaces.
No threat to the ship's fuel tanks at present.
The fuel tanks are well below any of the remaining active fires or heat sources, so any risk to them at this point is low.
The ship has salt water-filled compensation tanks that also help keep the fuel tanks cool.
There is at least one active fire in a forward area of the ship.
Firefighters had been unable to get to those spaces until today.
There is another heat source that could be another fire aft.
These two areas are isolated from each other.
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Three (HSC-3), based at nearby Naval Air Station North Island, has conducted more than 1,200 water bucket drops, in total.
In addition to other external firefighting operations, these drops have been essential in allowing firefighters to actually get on the ship.
61 personnel have been injured, in total, so far, 38 sailors and 23 civilians.
None of those individuals are hospitalized.
An explosion occurred while the crew was securing the space where the initial fire had broken out before they could safely energize the fire suppression system.
The fire spread rapidly from the front to the rear of the ship.
Navy is working with San Diego authorities to step up monitoring of potential adverse environmental impacts.
Coast Guard is prepared to respond to any potential environmental issues, including an oil spill.
No visible evidence of oil spill at present.
Hope that all fires will be out within the next 24 hours.
Too early to tell the full extent of the damage.

I suspect that the Iranian fires have more to do with the events mentioned in this tweet than anything happening in San Diego:

Ron M.

@Jewtastic
·
Jul 13

Explosion, fire at gas plant in east Iran. The cause of the incident is under investigation. | Trying to hack Israel's national water supply by poisoning Israelis with chlorine was a big mistake.

 

[Winston]

I suspect that the Iranian fires have more to do with the events mentioned in this tweet than anything happening in San Diego:

Do some research of the past and connect all of the dots you'll find. The US and Israel have been convert allies many times in the past and Iran has retaliated in various ways. Fire on a US military ship in port and then, two days later, an entire series fires in Iranian ships at port is more than a little coincidental to me.

EDIT: did a keyword search and found this and several others behind paywalls or ad blocker prohibitions:

Attack on Iran’s nuclear program: long-planned and bigger than first thought
Saturday, July 10, 2020

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation...m-long-planned-and-bigger-than-first-thought/
Although Iran has said little of substance about the explosions, Western officials anticipate some type of retaliation, perhaps against U.S. or allied forces in Iraq, perhaps a renewal of cyberattacks. In the past, those have been directed against U.S. financial institutions, a major Las Vegas casino and a dam in the New York suburbs or, more recently, the water supply system in Israel, which its government considers “critical infrastructure.”

Officials familiar with the explosion at Natanz compared its complexity to the sophisticated Stuxnet cyberattack on Iranian nuclear facilities a decade ago, which had been planned for more than a year. In the case of last week’s episode, the primary theory is that an explosive device was planted in the heavily guarded facility, perhaps near a gas line. But some experts have also floated the possibility that a cyberattack was used to trigger the gas supply.

Some officials said that a joint U.S.-Israeli strategy was evolving — some might argue regressing — to a series of short-of-war clandestine strikes, aimed at taking out the most prominent generals of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and setting back Iran’s nuclear facilities.

 

[boatgeek]

Do some research of the past and connect all of the dots you'll find. The US and Israel have been convert allies many times in the past and Iran has retaliated in various ways. Fire on a US military ship in port and then, two days later, an entire series fires in Iranian ships at port is more than a little coincidental to me.

...

Maybe, but Occam's Razor would say that a fire that started in a pile of construction debris during a maintenance period was accidental. While Seal teams (or the Israeli equivalent) could certainly be in Iran within a day or two, snap raids are going to have a lot higher risk of casualties/getting caught, which would raise the stakes immensely. It seems more likely that it was a long-term plan with a bunch of set pieces. "Look at that fire over there! Oops, another one behind you! Nowhere safe, is there?!"

 

[Peartree]

Maybe, but for a ship in a maintenance cycle, and all of the fire doors left open, it isn't hard to believe that oily rags, or a careless dockworker, started a fire.

{oops, boatgeek got there first. I was almost going to mention Occom's razor too.}

 

[Winston]

Maybe, but Occam's Razor would say that a fire that started in a pile of construction debris during a maintenance period was accidental. While Seal teams (or the Israeli equivalent) could certainly be in Iran within a day or two, snap raids are going to have a lot higher risk of casualties/getting caught, which would raise the stakes immensely. It seems more likely that it was a long-term plan with a bunch of set pieces. "Look at that fire over there! Oops, another one behind you! Nowhere safe, is there?!"

Yep. But the timing of these fires is suspicious. And think about it, just ONE person "accidentally" making an "oops" in such a situation at the right place and time - intentionally. How well are these workers vetted? I'll bet not very well and even vetted workers can be turned. And is everything brought onboard during maintenance carefully inspected? Even of that's the policy, there's no way it's likely to happen and even if it was strictly enforced, probably many ways it could be bypassed.

Another case similar to this: The Notre-Dame fire which occurred during the most significant week of the year in the Catholic Church - Holy Week - that was then and to this day only "speculated" to be linked to ongoing renovation work. Of course, with very little effort using Google one could find that there had been a epidemic of Cathedral vandalism and arson all over France at that time.

Same sort of suspicions in this case. The timing and the specific events.

Veteran Sailor On Why Navy Ships Can Be Most Vulnerable In Port And How To Change That
USS Bonhomme Richard's catastrophic fire should prompt big changes to in port practices. The Navy should start by looking at its nuclear vessels.
JULY 15, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ost-vulnerable-in-port-and-how-to-change-that
Excerpt:

The Dangers Of Sitting Still

The USS Bonhomme Richard was in an unusual condition on July 12th before an explosion onboard would set the ship ablaze. The amphibious assault ship was wrapping up a significant maintenance period at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard and had been moved to Naval Base San Diego's Pier 2. The maintenance activity was still ongoing at the time of the "casualty," or accident.

This means many systems were offline. The ship was full of shipyard personnel wrapping up their parts of the project. Under these circumstances, the decks can be littered with welding crews bonding fixtures to the outboards, cutting torches removing old mounts, grinding disks showering sparks into a fire-retardant cloth, and various workspace debris. Other workers would be working on ship’s wiring, air conditioning, and pretty much anything else.

During these maintenance periods, passageways of the ship are often clogged with cables powering temporary light bulbs that cast shadows in corners. White strings tie up thick, black ventilation hoses that hum with air. Temporary alarm panels and fire hoses are mounted at critical locations shrinking the already highly limited corridor space. To provide these services to lower decks, some hatches are "fouled," preventing or obstructing access. All this dramatically restricts how the crew can move between levels. They have to snake their way past obstructed hatches to get to an available ladder to move to the next level. Sailors and shipyard workers constantly weave around these obstacles during the workday to get to their workspaces.

When a vessel is in a long maintenance availability window, the ship is in a constant state of filth. Dust, fiber, shavings, and oils begin to pool in corners and crevices the moment a vessel begins a refit. If left unattended, this debris quickly becomes kindling for fires.

During these long in-port periods, many experienced sailors are rotating off the ship to new commands. Many of the crewmen who report to the ship while in a maintenance availability either have not been to sea for years or are new and have never been to sea at all. They may struggle to navigate to their workspace and have never visited some parts of the ship when it is in this condition. This lack of familiarity with their vessel creates delays in response to casualties.

Every month the ship is in maintenance, it becomes more susceptible to disaster, not only from its inherent condition, but from the lack of onboard crew experience.

 

[Winston]

Here are some dots I connected in another case I was immediately suspicious about at the time. I didn't see any such investigative work at the time and for months afterward which is as long as I checked. It was started by a vehicle on a vehicle carrier.

2008 Channel Tunnel fire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Channel_Tunnel_fire
The fire was reported on 11 September 2008, at approximately 13:57 UTC.

A lorry carrying 100 kg of phenol (carbolic acid), a toxic product used in the pharmaceutical industry, was initially thought to be close to the seat of the fire; however, this was discovered to be an error and only 100 g was carried. Eyewitness accounts state that two loud bangs, described as explosions, were heard and then thick smoke swept through the carriage.

The south tower, the first World Trade Center tower to collapse, did so at 9:59 AM on September 11.

NYC is UTC-4 at that time of year. 13:57 - 4 = 9:57 AM. Close enough.

I strongly suspect that many dots are never officially connected and announced because it would reveal how easy it would be to do things like that. Think about it. How difficult would it be to intentionally do something like what started that Channel Tunnel fire?

Frankly, I'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen all the time. Maybe it does. The Texas fertilizer plant where a fire that caused the explosion is now judged to have been arson (which reminds me to investigate that). Any number of refinery explosions, etc.

 

[boatgeek]

Yep. But the timing of these fires is suspicious. And think about it, just ONE person "accidentally" making an "oops" in such a situation at the right place and time - intentionally. How well are these workers vetted? I'll bet not very well and even vetted workers can be turned. And is everything brought onboard during maintenance carefully inspected? Even of that's the policy, there's no way it's likely to happen and even if it was strictly enforced, probably many ways it could be bypassed.

Another case similar to this: The Notre-Dame fire which occurred during the most significant week of the year in the Catholic Church - Holy Week - that was then and to this day only "speculated" to be linked to ongoing renovation work. Of course, with very little effort using Google one could find that there had been a epidemic of Cathedral vandalism and arson all over France at that time.

Same sort of suspicions in this case. The timing and the specific events.

Veteran Sailor On Why Navy Ships Can Be Most Vulnerable In Port And How To Change That
USS Bonhomme Richard's catastrophic fire should prompt big changes to in port practices. The Navy should start by looking at its nuclear vessels.
JULY 15, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ost-vulnerable-in-port-and-how-to-change-that
Excerpt:

The Dangers Of Sitting Still

The USS Bonhomme Richard was in an unusual condition on July 12th before an explosion onboard would set the ship ablaze. The amphibious assault ship was wrapping up a significant maintenance period at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard and had been moved to Naval Base San Diego's Pier 2. The maintenance activity was still ongoing at the time of the "casualty," or accident.

This means many systems were offline. The ship was full of shipyard personnel wrapping up their parts of the project. Under these circumstances, the decks can be littered with welding crews bonding fixtures to the outboards, cutting torches removing old mounts, grinding disks showering sparks into a fire-retardant cloth, and various workspace debris. Other workers would be working on ship’s wiring, air conditioning, and pretty much anything else.

During these maintenance periods, passageways of the ship are often clogged with cables powering temporary light bulbs that cast shadows in corners. White strings tie up thick, black ventilation hoses that hum with air. Temporary alarm panels and fire hoses are mounted at critical locations shrinking the already highly limited corridor space. To provide these services to lower decks, some hatches are "fouled," preventing or obstructing access. All this dramatically restricts how the crew can move between levels. They have to snake their way past obstructed hatches to get to an available ladder to move to the next level. Sailors and shipyard workers constantly weave around these obstacles during the workday to get to their workspaces.

When a vessel is in a long maintenance availability window, the ship is in a constant state of filth. Dust, fiber, shavings, and oils begin to pool in corners and crevices the moment a vessel begins a refit. If left unattended, this debris quickly becomes kindling for fires.

During these long in-port periods, many experienced sailors are rotating off the ship to new commands. Many of the crewmen who report to the ship while in a maintenance availability either have not been to sea for years or are new and have never been to sea at all. They may struggle to navigate to their workspace and have never visited some parts of the ship when it is in this condition. This lack of familiarity with their vessel creates delays in response to casualties.

Every month the ship is in maintenance, it becomes more susceptible to disaster, not only from its inherent condition, but from the lack of onboard crew experience.

The Bonhomme Richard and the Chunnel aren't just apples and oranges, they're more like apples and cinder blocks. The Chunnel is basically an open transit passageway with minimal security checks. I've gone into commercial shipyards that do work on Navy ships--that requires you to have a TSA-issued ID that you get with the same background check as the TSA Pre Check. The General Dynamics/NASSCO job application says that you need a background check, and it would be either the same one or a stricter one. They would be particularly interested in any connections to Iran because of terrorism/national security issues. I'm not saying that background checks catch everyone, but they do make it harder to get through. Getting into actual Naval shipyards is far harder. I'm also not saying it couldn't be arson--that's happened before too. I'm just saying that it's not easy to get into these places, particularly for someone associated with Iran.

What's interesting about the "Dangers of Sitting Still" article is that it's basically a call to keep ships clean in the shipyard. You see the same pleas all over yards, at least the good ones. You can tell a good shipyard from a crappy one pretty much immediately by how clean it's kept. Now that I think it over a little more, I'm going to change my preliminary guess from spontaneous combustion of oily rags to a stray spark from hot work (grinding, welding, etc.). There's supposed to be a fire watch in those areas, but sparks can stay dormant for up to half an hour and then flare up. Fires from hot work are distressingly common.

And back to some of the original discussion: That picture with the firefighters shows a large rusty/blackened patch. The entire compartment behind that is destroyed by fire, as is likely the spaces immediately below that have a brown tinge. There's another blackened area where the fire hose is playing on the ship, though that looks to be more smoke damage than fire. You can see a bulge in the shell plating just to the left of the rusty patch. That is likely distortions from either heat or sudden cooling when the fire hose hit it from the outside. Any steel that's distorted or badly enough affected by fire to damage paint will need to be replaced to have that ship sail again. I'm seeing at least 100-200 tons of steel replacements in that one picture. Those surfaces are pretty flat, so you're looking at about 250 worker hours per ton. You're probably looking at a cost of about $100/hour for the labor hourly rate plus engineering, project management, etc. That adds up to about $2.5M-$5M in that picture just for the steel, which is about a third or a quarter of the total cost of a ship.

 

[afadeev]

Here are some dots I connected in another case [...]
NYC is UTC-4 at that time of year. 13:57 - 4 = 9:57 AM. Close enough.

And ....

 

[rharshberger]

And ....

Until the investigation is complete I am not going to agree with conspiracy theories either. I am more worried the ship will be cheaper to replace than repair.

 

[afadeev]

Until the investigation is complete I am not going to agree with conspiracy theories either. I am more worried the ship will be cheaper to replace than repair.

Agree, and you are most likely right on the cost assessment.
But I bet it will be repaired for emotional and job security reasons (for everyone involved).

Writing off a whole ship, as at outcome of negligence (or worse), is a really bad career move for the Navy commanders involved.
Far better to paint it as a battle scar or a battle-challenge that needs to be overcome at any cost, to preserve honor, dignity, and love for <insert your favorite thing here>.

 

[rharshberger]

Agree, and you are most likely right on the cost assessment.
But I bet it will be repaired for emotional and job security reasons (for everyone involved).

Writing off a whole ship, as at outcome of negligence (or worse), is a really bad career move for the Navy commanders involved.
Far better to paint it as a battle scar or a battle-challenge that needs to be overcome at any cost, to preserve honor, dignity, and love for <insert your favorite thing here>.

I am not a sentimentalist when it comes to ships with no "historical significance", yes it has won the Battle E award 8 times, but it bears no emotional value to the nation as whole like say the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). I know she has emotional value to the men who have served aboard her, and that counts for something. I do think that we should try and preserve history so that we can see where we have been and since there are seven other ships in her class her single loss will not impact history as one of them can be preserved if desired.

 

[eljefe]

Given the severity of damage reported and the age of the ship, I highly doubt it will be worth repairing. The Wasp class LHDs cost about $1.5 billion to build. I bet repairing LHD-6 will be upwards of $1 billion, for a ship already over 20 years old.

While an accident is the most likely explanation for the fire, I wouldn't be so quick as other posters to rule out sabotage. Just remember what happened to the Miami.

 

[Winston]

...requires you to have a TSA-issued ID that you get with the same background check as the TSA Pre Check

Sorry, you lost me at that point, but I did read it all. I know of a DOD SCIF(!) that was halfway through construction until it was halted after it was discovered that 50% of the construction crew were illegal aliens (to use the government term used in US Code related to them)! A TSA clearance? Give me a break. Plus, a person can be completely clean until something happens in their life to change their world view. Or they can be blackmailed. Or they can be paid. Or...

You can see from that danger while in port article that the most vulnerable time for a military vessel in peacetime is while it's in port being worked on. Perfect time for "an accident." Government intel agencies do this sort of thing quite often from what I've read. They "send a message" about an adversary's vulnerability while providing inadequate proof for a retaliatory strike.

 

[Winston]

Navy Investigation Into USS Bonhomme Richard Fire Now Has An Arson Suspect: Report
The fire burned for days and likely destroyed a ship worth billions of dollars. Now a sailor is being investigated for starting the blaze on purpose.
AUGUST 26, 2020

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-richard-fire-now-has-an-arson-suspect-report
Channel 10 News, the ABC affiliate in San Diego, reports that a sailor is under investigation for the fire that burned for days aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. The blaze has likely destroyed the multi-billion-dollar capital ship.

Channel 10 News states:

Multiple sources with close ties to Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) told ABC 10News that investigators determined the July 12 fire may have been set intentionally. Investigators identified a sailor as an arson suspect in their probe, sources said.

The sources added multiple search warrants were executed at the sailor’s home and property. The sailor’s name and rank were not disclosed.

The outlet also stated that the NCIS team dealing with the investigation has "requested help from the National Response Team for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) because the agency provides resources and expertise on complex, large-scale incidents like the massive ship fire."

If indeed a serviceperson caused this, it could represent the most expensive single losses of property due to arson anywhere, let alone from within the Navy. It's worth noting that a civilian contractor was to blame for what is now the second-worst fire aboard a U.S. Navy vessel in recent memory. In 2012, Casey Fury, a painter and sandblaster, lit the Los Angeles class nuclear fast-attack submarine USS Miami (SSN-755) on fire. The damage was pegged at the better part of $1B and the ship was removed from service as a result.

 

[Initiator001]

The unnamed sailor has only been questioned.

He has not been charged.

The investigation is ongoing.