Navy says crews making progress on still-burning ship near San Diego
SAN DIEGO — As fire on the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard entered its third day, the Navy said its crews have made significant progress fighting fires around the clock and reducing smoke and they will soon begin tackling two isolated fires on the ship.
Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, said the ship so far is stable and the structure is safe.
“We still have an active fire which we are combating both from within and externally from multiple access points,” he said.
He said it’s too early to tell how much damage the fire has done to the ship and whether the ship will survive.
“When you look at the outside of the ship, you don’t get the full picture,” he said.
“We haven’t been inside of the ship well enough to get a full picture. It looks cleaner from the outside (but) inside, again, we’re still fighting a major fire.”
He said there are two main fires burning, one in the forward part of the ship and one aft. In the forward section, crews haven’t been able to get to the fire because it was too hot, he said.
Crews have been trying to cool the metal in the ship to reach the fire. Navy helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 3 have made 1,200 water bucket dumps, he said.
Both fires appear to be in the upper part of the ship.
Sobeck said the Navy has been able to investigate the four main engineering spaces on the ship and there’s no major damage there. Also the fire is still far away from the 1 million gallons of fuel the ship is carrying, he said.
More than 400 sailors and fire crews from across the San Diego waterfront have been fighting the blaze.
There have been 61 injuries; 38 sailors and 23 civilians have been treated mostly for minor injuries related to firefighting. The last five at the hospital left by Monday afternoon.