Navy ship fire rages for second day
Air quality suffers in the San Diego area as crews battle flames by air, sea and land.
SAN DIEGO — U.S. Navy officials said Monday that the fire ravaging the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard for a second day had reached temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees and was still burning in various portions of the ship.
Smoke and fumes continued to affect the skyline and air throughout San Diego.
Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, said Monday morning that the fire was in the superstructure of the ship and its upper decks and that the forward mast had collapsed.
“There’s obviously burn damage all the way through the skin of the ship, and we are assessing that as we kind of go through each compartment,” he said. “Right now the priority is to get the fire out so that we can take a complete assessment.”
He said the flames were two decks away from the area in the ship where a million gallons of fuel were stored. He said that was “a concern,” but he was confident the fire could be kept away from it.
About 400 sailors and fire crews from across the San Diego waterfront were fighting the blaze, and helicopters were conducting water drops. As of midday, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 3 had dumped 415 buckets on the ship, Sobeck said.
Water from the firefighting was causing the ship to list to one side, he said, but Navy personnel were working to pump the water off.
The cause of the fire remained unknown. Sobeck said it may have begun in a cargo area known as the deep-V storage area.
Sobeck said that although the ship was under maintenance, none of the work being done was in the storage area. And because of the work being conducted, the ship’s halon system, which emits a gas that starves a fire of oxygen, was not active, he said.
Through Monday afternoon, 36 sailors and 23 civilians had been treated for injuries, mostly minor, related to firefighting. None were in the hospital.
Air quality remained a problem. Residents report smelling smoke from as far away as Vista, more than 40 miles. The skyline around San Diego’s South Bay and Bonita area had a tinge of brown Monday morning.
Sobeck, who said plastics and the exteriors of cabling were burning, urged people to take the precautions recommended by county airquality officials. San Diego County and the National Weather Service recommended that people stay indoors with windows closed if they smelled the fire.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was preemptively deploying a protective boom in a 1-nautical-mile safety zone “to guard against any potential environmental concerns.” It also was restricting aircraft in the area up to 3,000 feet.
Area cities have tried to prepare for emergency situations such as fires on Navy ships. As recently as six months ago, Coronado, San Diego, federal firefighters and the Navy participated in a three-day joint training session that included learning how to interact with multiple agencies and provide support, said Coronado Fire Chief Jim Lydon.
On Sunday, Coronado sent a battalion chief and a firetruck, he said, and provided help inside the ship.
Some observers on social media, including former sailors and Naval experts, questioned whether the Navy would scuttle the ship, but Sobeck said Monday he believes the ship would ultimately be repaired.
Amphibious assault ships are used to deploy Marines in amphibious landings. During operations, the ships conduct flight operations with helicopters and jet aircraft, such as the AV-8B Harrier and its replacement, the F-35 B Lightning. While deployed, the ships can carry more than 2,000 sailors and Marines.
Sobeck said Sunday that all sailors are trained from boot camp to fight fires on ships.
This is one of the biggest fires on a Navy ship outside of combat. In 1967, a fire on the aircraft carrier Forrestal killed more than 130 sailors after a rocket accidentally fired on the flight deck and ignited several explosions. The episode has been used as a lesson on how to tackle safety procedures aboard Navy vessels.
The George Washington, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, caught fire in 2008 when oil was improperly stored on the craft. At least 37 sailors were injured in the fire, which took 12 hours to put out and cost $70 million in repairs.