SHIP WOULD BE AMONG LARGEST-EVER LOSSES FOR NAVY

Some military experts believe damage likely too extensive to save it

For as long as the Navy has had ships, there have been fires, and some have been deadly. That the Bonhomme Richard appears to have escaped without fatalities also explains why the fire has been so hard to put out.

Hardly anyone was on board when it started.

“As counterintuitive as this sounds, I would much rather fight a fire at sea with a whole crew than fight it dockside,” said Bryan Mcgrath, a retired Navy commander. “The ability to act quickly with a massive response and inhibit the spread is aided when you have all your people.”

Some military experts believe the Bonhomme Richard can’t be saved, and if that’s the case, the mini-aircraft carrier — it was being retrofitted to deploy the latest-generation fighter jets — would be among the largest Navy ships ever lost.

It’s already joined the ranks of significant non-combat fires and explosions that have occurred while ships have been at a stateside pier or anchored nearby.

In 1905, the gunboat Bennington blew up in San Diego Bay, killing 65 sailors. In 1944, 322 people died when an ammunition ship exploded at a port north of San Francisco. Fifty people perished in 1960 when the carrier Constellation caught fire during the final stages of construction at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.

“We obviously don’t know yet what happened here, but the dangers in the industrial environment are well-understood,” Mcgrath said. “Crews are grinding, welding, chipping — all those activities have the capac

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