Navy officials announced Thursday that the fire at the USS Bonhomme Richard docked at the San Diego Naval Base was extinguished, and investigators will now examine the 840-foot amphibious assault ship to see if it is salvageable.
The fire broke out Sunday in the storage area of the ship’s lower armored vehicle and quickly spread throughout the ship. The flames lasted for four days as Navy officials and federal firefighters worked through the night to extinguish the fire, which at one point reached up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The boat moved Wednesday night and headed toward the dock, prompting the Navy to briefly remove firefighting sailors searching the intestines of the U.S. warship for the remaining hot spots, officials from The marine. The sailors returned to the ship in an hour.
A Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 3 helicopter fights a fire aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) at San Diego Naval Base, Tuesday, July 14, 2020.
(US Navy via AP)
Helicopters dumped more than 1,500 buckets of water on the ship, which had been docked at the San Diego port under maintenance.
The Navy believes that a spark from an unknown source first ignited heavy-duty cardboard boxes, rags, and other maintenance supplies that were stored in the lower vehicle’s storage area. But the precise cause of the fire remains unclear.
Rear Admiral Philip Sobeck, the commander of the strike group whose flagship is the USS Bonhomme Richard, said Navy fire crews are investigating every space on the ship to verify the absence of fire.
“We did not know the origin of the fire. We don’t know the extent of the damage, “he said. “It is too early to make predictions or promises of what the future of the ship will be. We cannot draw any conclusions until the investigation is complete. “
Experts said onboard fires are difficult to put out.
“It is very difficult to drown the oxygen in the open spaces on the deck,” and then follow the flames in all corners of a ship, said maritime attorney Rod Sullivan, who served in the Navy.
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It is not uncommon for ship fires to take days to extinguish, he added, pointing to a fire last month on a cargo ship carrying cars that burned for eight days in Jacksonville, Florida.
The difficulty was compounded aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard because it was under maintenance and there was scaffolding, along with other equipment and debris in the path of firefighters.
Sobeck has said he is hopeful that the ship can still be repaired, but no one will know until it is secure enough for crews to access all areas.
It could cost approximately $ 4 billion to replace the ship if it is deemed non-recoverable. The Bonhomme Richard was nearing the end of a two-year update that is estimated to cost $ 250 million. It was being made so that the ship could begin to be used to deploy Marine Corps F-35Bs into the Pacific.
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Forty sailors and nearly two dozen civilians have been treated for minor injuries, heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. No Navy personnel were hospitalized.
Associated Press contributed to this report..
