Bonhomme Richard Fire

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Anyone in San Diego? Has anyone heard anything about any kind of relief efforts for the crew?

[Jim Becker]

They are not taking donations and have cautioned there are a lot of scammers trying to milk this already. My niece's husband is Navy in that area that that's the word we are hearing.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Good to know. Was just thinking about 800ish sailors losing their personal gear, having to take quarters ashore, etc. At least nobody is dead yet.

[Lee Schierer]

From what I saw in the early fire videos, it appears the ship was undergoing some sort of shipyard type work. Otherwise it would be highly unusual to have that many shipping containers and other stuff on the flight deck.

Navy Relief is the Navy organization that helps sailors in these situations.

[Jim Becker]

The ship had minimal on-board staffing because it was indeed docked for major work. That was actually fortunate and likely why the casualty count was somewhat low, albeit even "one" is too many.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Lee, thanks for mentioning Navy Relief. I don't know why I did not think of that. Their website does indicate they are assisting the crew.

She had a significant fire in the engine room in 2002. The damage control teams had it under control incredibly quickly. It is hard to believe this could have gotten out of control if the normal teams were in place.

[Jim Becker]

On the news this morning, they indicated that the suppression system wasn't online or something like that because of the renovation work that was in progress.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

For us old timey Navy vet I remember the smoke room during boot camp fire training. Makes me very happy that 1) it didn't happen at sea, 2) I wasn't there and 3) I didn't do it.

[Mel Fulks]

As a land guy I can't help wondering why they don't just cut a hole ,or holes above the water line in order to better
access the fire. Then weld it back.

[Rod Sheridan]

As a land guy I can't help wondering why they don't just cut a hole ,or holes above the water line in order to better
access the fire. Then weld it back.

Below the water line would extinguish the fire faster

Regards, Rod.

[Brian Elfert]

I read something elsewhere that the fire suppression pumps only work when the engines are running. They supposed don't work when on shore power as the ship was before the fire.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

As a land guy I can't help wondering why they don't just cut a hole ,or holes above the water line in order to better
access the fire. Then weld it back.

This video shows most of the major spaces in the center of the ship (upper V, well deck, hangar deck, and the flight deck). Most of the major spaces are connected by open ramps. The spaces around the outside (not really shown in the video) are all subdivided, and can be locked down for damage control. They are saying the fire started in the lower V (if I recall correctly it is the space visible to the left as they greet the first officer who speaks to them).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo

[Jason Roehl]

Below the water line would extinguish the fire faster

Regards, Rod.

At least all fires on ships go out on their own eventually...

[Bill Dufour]

They say it is not fuel or oil fires. It is always hard to understand how much can burn in a metal ship. There must be a ton of paperwork in a ship to keep the home fires burning. How much wood will be on a metal warship these days anyway. Probably less then the amount of burnable plastic stuff.
Bill D

[Kev Williams]

The average Home Depot store is just over 100,000 square feet, this boat is 88,620 square feet on the deck, slightly less below... Within THAT much space, there's gonna be plenty of stuff to catch on fire. Just the sheathing on all the electric wiring that must be in that ship would fuel a pretty good fire I'd think...