Posted on 07/16/2020 10:49:47 AM PDT by CedarDave
uly 15th came and went with little new official information regarding the ongoing fire fighting operations aboard USS Bonhomme Richard. Then, it was announced at around 11 pm local time this evening, that the Navy cleared the ship and the pier of all personnel due to a rapid shift in the vessel's stability.
The tweet from Naval Surface Warfare stated the following:
Out of an abundance of caution the pier and ship were cleared of personnel due to an initial shift in the ship’s list. Personnel are now pier side. We will continue to monitor as the ship settles.
Bonhomme Richard had begun listing to starboard on July 13th and that list only increased until being brought under control recently. Now it looks like the ship has listed to port, toward the pier, which triggered the evacuation as the fire approaches the four-day mark.
The good news is that crews were able to return at least alongside the vessel to continue emergency response operations. There have been concerns regarding the amount of water the ship has taken on over the last few days via firefighting efforts on board, from the sea, and from the air. It was reported on the morning of July 15th that Navy MH-60S Seahawks have dropped 1,500 Bambi Buckets of water on the ship in an effort to keep its exterior cool.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
What is the crew suppose to breath while the big halocarbon bombs do their job?
So accurate that it needs repeating...
But why couldn’t they roll or drop big Halon bombs into strategic spots?
Are they able to have electricity on board to keep the pumps working? Without the water being sprayed on it to fight the fire, then the list is explainable and possible sinking alongside the dock.
When it comes to 20+ YO ship the crew is more important than the vessel. Just build them a new one.
There have been several ships in the US Navy with that moniker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bonhomme_Richard
I was on the USS Shreveport (LPD-12) from 93-94. We had the unique pleasure of both fighting a Class B fire while pulling away from the pier, and ramming The USS Fairfax County (LST-1193) during the same series of exercises.
Because we don’t have them any more. Halon manufacture was banned decades ago (after the Wasp class was designed). Also, everyone in range of a Halon dispersal event that isn’t on tank air is going to die.
I’m sure that was anything but fun. Thanks for your service.
Thanks. I did not know Halon is no longer made. Good product though.
Well, the fires are pretty much out as of this afternoon and it’s now in the phase civilian firefighters know as overhaul and salvage (I have no idea what Navy DC calls it.)
The crew is long off the vessel (they evacuated after the fire started, see the other thread where some of us were posting scanner traffic), only firefighters are on it at current.
We were probably going to be replacing it with one of the Flight 1 America LHAs anyway. LHA-9 doesn’t have a name yet, and is scheduled to have her keel laid down in the near future, so I think it’s going to be a pretty easy decision.
Not an inside job, but more likely complacency due to a different safety culture.
Halalon is the replacement. Supposed to be just as good I guess.
Thanks for the link. The list is obvious, but not severe. No more smoke, so I’m hoping the fire is out. If so, they can pump the water out and she will right herself. With a lot of money, some luck and better operational security, she might be saved and restored. Trying to be optimistic here.
Who would have guessed that if you keep pumping water into a ship that it might eventually list?
“Someone probably didn’t want to deploy for awhile.”
That’s stupid because they’d get reassigned to another ship.
Well with no deployed Navy, Marine aviation or other units the actual material loses are minimal considering. Nobody KIA.
Yup. There are some alternatives to Halon in inert gases and HFC gases, but they don’t work quite as well overall.
I work in IT and have seen someone have to hit the (grandfathered) Halon release when a datacenter had an under-floor fire. That stuff is or was absolute magic. Fire goes out pretty much instantly, no residue, as soon as you fix the problem you can resume operations. Sadly, killed by the Montreal Protocol because it liked to eat the ozone layer and people couldn’t be trusted to not use it trivially.
It’s not really a surprise, but I think they were expecting the ship to settle in the water more than having a concerning list. I think there’s going to be (well-deserved) questions about what happened with the independent powered pumps and fire extinguishing systems aka ‘portables’ and what happened to them. Then again, it may end up being such that there was no way to get to them once the fire began.
The pierside tires were burning. I saw photos and a video of them burning. This was on the first day.
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