Non-Navy personnel may not be aware that those USS GEORGE WASHINGTON sailors, and all sailors for that matter go through fire-fighting training in Boot Camp.. at least that was the way things were in my Navy Days.
When a ship is underway, miles and miles from shore, if a fire breaks out as in this case, fire-fighting is an All Hands operation. There’s no fire dept. to call.
On another semi-related topic, The USS KITTY HAWK was a new ship during my time. I served aboard a Destroyer Tender providing repairs and services to the fleet. I recall job orders from the KITTY HAWK when I worked in the Pipe Shop while we were overseas.
In Yokosuka, there is a pier named Piedmont Pier.. named after my ship back at the end of WWII because PIEDMONT set up repair operations while tied up to that pier. Again, during my time in Yokosuka, the carriers would be moored to Piedmont Pier, and we would be moored at another location at that Naval Station.
I’m assuming that carriers still moor to Piedmont Pier.
One more semi-related item, the scuttlebutt during those years said that the USS KITTY HAWK and the USS CONSTELLATION were built from the same plans and were the longest ships in the fleet. Each ship would boast that they were the longest so to settle the arguement, they measured the flight deck of each ship. The KITTY HAWK was the winner by 6 inches. If they were built from the same plans, how could one be bigger? Expansion joints and temperature caused one to be shorter than the other.
Like all good Sea Stories, “Now this is no s**t!”
The downside of that is that for most sailors that is the last fire fighting training they undergo unless under certain circumstances. The flight wing, for example, know next to nothing about fire fighting aboard the carrier they are attached to. The fire on the GW was fought in rotation by many sailors aboard her while still steaming. My daughter told me a carrier cannot come to a complete stop to fight even a major fire.