Navy sees progress against blaze on warship in San Diego Bay

[turbinetree]

Source: Associated Press

By JULIE WATSON
58 minutes ago

https://apnews.com/c6161c954c72f3b1aafb83cb0f5ae5e1/gallery/db8a9a68c2294999b80f8ea2dcfb0bbc


SAN DIEGO (AP) — The battle to save the USS Bonhomme Richard from a ravaging fire entered a third day in San Diego Bay on Tuesday with indications that the situation aboard the amphibious assault ship was improving.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement late Monday that firefighters were making significant progress with the assistance of water drops by helicopters.

The ship was emitting much less smoke than the previous two days, when acrid billows poured out and blanketed parts of the region.

The Navy, meanwhile, has taken precautions in case the warship sinks and potentially releases 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of oil on board into the harbor.

The U.S. Coast Guard has hired an oil clean-up crew to put a containment boom in place that could be ready if any oil is spilled. It also halted boat and air traffic within a nautical mile of the vessel.




Read more: https://apnews.com/c6161c954c72f3b1aafb83cb0f5ae5e1

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[DENVERPOPS]

1. Maybe

they should call "Coots and Boots" or Red Adair???????

[jmowreader]

2. Adair died in 2004.

I don't think Boots & Coots would do the job; they are strictly oil well firefighters.

[DENVERPOPS]

7. One of those outfits quickly put out a

major "fuel farm" fire at Stapleton? or DIA? years ago after Denver Fire Dept dorked around with it for days trying to put it out.

The Navy ship is said to have a million gallons of diesel on board, someone better do something quick!

[Permanut]

3. Scary stuff..

I was on a tin can in the '60's, and we knew when out to sea that we wouldn't be calling the fire department in a case like this. Fire drills were taken very seriously.

[ronatchig]

4. On board he ship I was on

We had drill after drill going to battle stations for battle and fire fighting (damage control) .The best time we had was 147 seconds. When we were out about 1000 miles in the atl returning from a med deployment ,we had a real fire and and were at battle stations in 43 seconds . We were some Real firefighting sailors that day.
DD 943 ,USS Blandy. May 1975.

[BigmanPigman]

5. I could still smell it last night at 3 AM.

I have to keep the windows closed, and it is warm out, since they say it is dangerous to i hale. It smells like electical wires and plastic melting. At first I freaked a little and thought it was from something in MY walls of my apt, I never thought the smoke would come this far(about 10 miles away) but it has spread to about 40 miles away.

[haele]

6. Went to the base commissary this afternoon, could see the ship from there.

No smoke apparent so I could get a good look at it from the parking lot by the trolley tracks. It was quite shocking from the distance to see the forward mast buckled over the bridge and leaning out over the harbor - I had run cable up that mast back in 2003 when we were doing a network and radio room installation. Amazingly enough, the radar antenna is still attached...
The Bonhomme Richard's berth is Pier 1 (don't joke), and is basically a 10 minute tow to Nassco shipyard, which is a big enough shipyard enough to drydock an LHD. I suspect she's going to spend a year or so getting stabilized if they want to send her back to Pascagula or Bath, but I suspect they'll just repair her here on San Diego. Nassco has been building large ships since WWII, they have the space and equipment to repair her- and are looking forward to more government work...

They're definitely going to have to replace the entire forward upper structure.

Just a disorienting sight if you have ever been on an LHD...

Haele