...............this is just my personal opinion based upon much duty on many ships. There is NO WAY this is one lower echelon sailor’s fault because even if he/she set the fire it should have been put out. Leadership failed to act IN TIME !!!
Shipboard “FIRE” is beaten into sailors from their very first day MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE and fire drills are conducted daily. This is just another case of officers closing ranks and finding ONE low ranking soul to pin the blame on. I suspect some form of PC is involved too.
IIRC, at the time personnel on the ship were to use extreme caution....when the arson happened, the fire spread rapidly. With the fire in the interior of the ship, minimal crew, and crowded p-ways, it was difficult to get to the fire.....maintenance on the prevention systems didn't help. The protocols in place were designed to respond to accidents.....not some jackass in serious need of keelhauling setting a fire onboard a ship in port undergoing maintenance.
To top it off, some of the inner compartments ruptured from heat - the cool air within the compartments reacted with the fire and caused explosions further hindering fire fighting efforts. Insofar as the higher ups - I remember several of the top brass being on station PDQ.
The ship was in port shore and seaborne fire prevention systems responded rapidly (can't remember if airborne measures responded too).
Note - I was never aboard the Bonnie Dick - but I did spend time on the Iwo (same class).
They are going to send this sailor to federal-pound-me-in-the-### prison for a long long time.