USS Bonhomme Richard, Amphibious Assault Ship, on fire with explosions reported

[Husky_Khan]

Fire, explosion on USS Bonhomme Richard sends 21 people to hospitals, fills San Diego skies with dark smoke

An amphibious assault ship caught fire on Sunday at Naval Base San Diego, injuring 17 sailors and four civilians, officials said.

www.usatoday.com

Currently sending large plumes of smoke over the city of San Diego where the 23 year old ship is currently docked. Over twenty individuals (military and civilian) reportedly hospitalized.

 

[Abhorsen]

Hopefully there was an HMS Serapis nearby for them to take over.

 

[Bacle]

So yeah, BHR may be a total loss after this, if it's gotten hot enough to compromise the metal like that.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Sigh they'll probably have to bring one of the two Tarawa class ships we have in reserve as a temporary replacement and hopefully Congress will do an emergency funding bill to fund a replacement hull so by the time said ship needs to be retired a new America will be available to replace her

 

[gral]

What I've heard is firefighters were ordered out of the ship a few hours ago. So yes, she's gone.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

What I've heard is firefighters were ordered out of the ship a few hours ago. So yes, she's gone.

Given the list she was having at the time that was the correct call since the last thing we need is people trapped inside the hull. Of course any ship is repairable so long as the hull is intact assuming you want to spend the money, hell the SS Normandie was repairable assuming the French had had the money. Mind you since she's 22 years old the navy will probably get seek a replacement instead as its massively more cost effective to get a new ship. On the positive side with Congress flinging money around this year like mad the funds for building an America earlier than planned and bringing a Tarawa out of mothballs as a temporary replacement shouldn't be hard to get approved

 

[Sailor.X]

What I've heard is firefighters were ordered out of the ship a few hours ago. So yes, she's gone.

Not neccesarily.

They fixed the Belknap after she got gutted and I mean gutted by fire. Not to mention what happened on the Forrestal.

It will take a few years but she too can be fixed.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Not neccesarily.

They fixed the Belknap after she got gutted and I mean gutted by fire. Not to mention what happened on the Forrestal.

It will take a few years but she too can be fixed.

We have the technology we just need the funding

 

[Sailor.X]

We have the technology we just need the funding

Indeed they can and more than likely will. Now time to put on my Petty Officer of the Watch cap. We need to find out who was the OOD, Sounding and Security Watch and the Petty Officer or Chief at the time in Central. Because if the Sounding and Security watch was doing his or her job they should have been able to report an out of ordinary situation before this happened. Those logs will be important for finding out the details of what happened. I hope we get more info on that.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Indeed they can and more than likely will. Now time to put on my Petty Officer of the Watch cap. We need to find out who was the OOD, Sounding and Security Watch and the Petty Officer or Chief at the time in Central. Because if the Sounding and Security watch was doing his or her job they should have been able to report an out of ordinary situation before this happened. Those logs will be important for finding out the details of what happened. I hope we get more info on that.

I'd say at least a couple dozen careers are toast. By the way over on spacebattles everyone thinks that the ship won't be repaired

 

[Bacle]

I'd say at least a couple dozen careers are toast. By the way over on spacebattles everyone thinks that the ship won't be repaired

I think it comes down to how much structural damage is found once the flames are gone.

If the heat has warped structural frames and internals too much, there may be no real way to repair that without effectively building a whole new ship as is.

Hopefully it can be repaired, but I'd guess repairs will be multiple years to complete.

 

[Sailor.X]

I'd say at least a couple dozen careers are toast. By the way over on spacebattles everyone thinks that the ship won't be repaired

Spacebattles is full of a bunch of idiots who would not know their Asshole from a hole in the ground. These are the same people who were singing the praises of the LCS ships when actually Navy veterans ans active duty Navy were pointing out the flaws. They did not want to hear about anything that busted their narrative.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

If nothing else the navy will be getting a crapload of new regulations as related to pierside maintenance and some extra DC training for the average sailor out of all of this.

 

[gral]

Not neccesarily.

They fixed the Belknap after she got gutted and I mean gutted by fire. Not to mention what happened on the Forrestal.

Although you have a point when mentioning the Forrestal, the fire on the Belknap was different: she got her superstructure gutted, and her structure wasn't compromised. This may not happen with Bonhomme Richard, even though the claims that firefighters were removed from the ship were false.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Although you have a point when mentioning the Forrestal, the fire on the Belknap was different: she got her superstructure gutted, and her structure wasn't compromised. This may not happen with Bonhomme Richard, even though the claims that firefighters were removed from the ship were false.

The only confirmed report of firefighters being removed was San Diego civilian firefighters, whose official twitter mentioned they were being pulled from the scene about four hours into the incident. This was indicative that there wasn't a risk of the fire spreading to the docks and other surrounding base buildings, so there was not a need for "regular" firefighters. Shipboard firefighting is, rather self-evidently, an *extremely niche* specialty that regular firefighters are not trained for.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Spacebattles is full of a bunch of idiots who would not know their Asshole from a hole in the ground. These are the same people who were singing the praises of the LCS ships when actually Navy veterans ans active duty Navy were pointing out the flaws. They did not want to hear about anything that busted their narrative.

Given the age of the ship, it'll depend on how much structural loss has incurred by the fire. If the ship is listing that bad before the fire is put out, you might be seeing a total loss...

 

[LordSunhawk]

Could easily be because of firefighting water building up in the bilges, which is very normal in a shipboard fire at dockside. They're not bothering with counterflooding since it's already tied up to the dock.

 

[Sailor.X]

Could easily be because of firefighting water building up in the bilges, which is very normal in a shipboard fire at dockside. They're not bothering with counterflooding since it's already tied up to the dock.

Yep they are not running any bilge pumps or portable P-250 pumps because to the fire. So water build up is expected.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Still I have my doubts as to whether or not the Navy deems it worth it to repair the ship especially if she has suffered severe enough structural damage. Honestly it might be way more cost effective to accelerate Bougainville's construction and speed up the procurement and construction of the next couple Americas. Still we'll have to wait for the fires to be put out and the Yard Dogs to do their surveys to know for sure one way or the other.

 

[Airedale260]

Spacebattles is full of a bunch of idiots who would not know their Asshole from a hole in the ground. These are the same people who were singing the praises of the LCS ships when actually Navy veterans ans active duty Navy were pointing out the flaws. They did not want to hear about anything that busted their narrative.

Well, there are a couple Navy guys commenting on it...and the fire appears to have burned from the keel up into the island, so while it's possible the Navy throws the money over to fix it, it's not guaranteed, with the new Americas coming online the Navy may try to tack one more onto the order.

That's not to say it's definitely a write off, but it's not unreasonable to think it might be scrapped rather than repaired. She's a steam-powered ship at a time when our non-nuclear ships are all gas turbines (in fact her sister LHD-8 Makin Island is gas).