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.
..........2 days and 54 years ago a much worse fire occurred on the Forrestal. 134 sailors were killed and 161 injured.
The Forrestal spent 5 months in dry dock and returned to duty. I’m sure they would have loved to have been tied up to the dock with swarms of fireboats and scores of civilian firemen helping out.
Your right that only 160 sailors were left on board. That’s the fn PC Navy we have today. So, the Navy that you and I served in let too many people go on Liberty or leave and lost a billion dollar ship because somebody set a fire!
Somebody’s ass ought to fry in real hot grease just for that but we know NO ACCOUNTABILITY is the watchword of the Navy today. Drive a billion dollar destroyer into a cargo ship..........no problem, give that woman a LETTER of “sternness” (or whatever they are called these days). I’m sure the parents of the kids killed appreciated the letter of “sternness”.
I respect your opinion sir but the Navy F’d up big time and we all should be screaming to high heaven as loud as we can not making excuses or explaining away what happened. At a minimum, the CNO Mike Gilday should be fired along with the Captain, the OOD and probably some others. This happened on their watch. Nothing will happen to Gilday and something like this will happen again because the last CNO (Gilday) got off without even a letter of sternness!