Explosion and fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard

[Puffnstuff]

Not much information except that several sailors were injured.

 

[hal2kilo]

OK, it's one of those relatively new amphibious carriers. Looks like a nasty fire. Hope there will be no casualties.

 

[Puffnstuff]

She's definitely in trouble.

 

[tweaker2]

If it was in for dockside maintenance where hotwork ie - welding, grinding etc. was being done and the fire watch/safety/gas detection personnel were found to be derelict, I pity those folks and the private contractors that hired them because they will never get a job from the Navy ever again along with possible civil/criminal charges being issued.

That being said, one incident of carelessness and neglect at a specific base will result in a nationwide policy initiative in order to prevent such incidents from happening again, usually to the irritation and sense of being further restricted in the way work crews are able to to their jobs, of which are already bogged down with layers of policy and regulations meant to cover those folks in management from liability.

Of course, this is where innovative clever shortcuts and go-around's where safely possible by experienced work crews will make or break a contractor's bid for those jobs they're competing for.

 

[hal2kilo]

If it was in for dockside maintenance where hotwork ie - welding, grinding etc. was being done and the fire watch/safety/gas detection personnel were found to be derelict, I pity those folks and the private contractors that hired them because they will never get a job from the Navy ever again along with possible civil/criminal charges being issued.

That being said, one incident of carelessness and neglect at a specific base will result in a nationwide policy initiative in order to prevent such incidents from happening again, usually to the irritation and sense of being further restricted in the way work crews are able to to their jobs, of which are already bogged down with layers of policy and regulations meant to cover those folks in management from liability.

Of course, this is where innovative clever shortcuts and go-around's where safely possible by experienced work crews will make or break a contractor's bid for those jobs they're competing for.

After the USS Miami fire in Kittery Maine, they had to build all these huge water headers that had to be in place during refits at the Bangor base. It was a huge deal. If you only knew how many hours I spent over justifying using an electrostatically safe vacuum cleaner, that ironically was made of plastic. Oye! Because the stupid douche welder supposedly sucked up hot sputter into his vacuum cleaner, that happened to be made out of plastic, they of course blanketly banned all plastic vacuum cleaners right off the bat without realizing the ramifications. Shit, just thinking about it reminds me of the kinds of things I had to deal with there that made me retired a little early.

 

[tweaker2]

After the USS Miami fire in Kittery Maine, they had to build all these huge water headers that had to be in place during refits at the Bangor base. It was a huge deal. If you only knew how many hours I spent over justifying using an electrostatically safe vacuum cleaner, that ironically was made of plastic. Oye! Because the stupid douche welder supposedly sucked up hot sputter into his vacuum cleaner, that happened to be made out of plastic, they of course blanketly banned all plastic vacuum cleaners right off the bat without realizing the ramifications. Shit, just thinking about it reminds me of the kinds of things I had to deal with there that made me retired a little early.

Well wadda you know, I recall maybe a coup'la years ago all plastic vacuum cleaners were banned from Pearl Harbor to be replaced with metal cannister types. Word came from BAE (our prime contractor who is about to be let go) that it was top priority to get those plastic portables out of Pearl as quickly as possible.

Yep, just the daily paperwork needing to get signed off on for confirming that cleaning of the work area before leaving the job site was accomplished alone was bad enough. So much easier working for the private sector.

I tried to retire last year but the big boss talked me out of it until after we get the DDG overhaul jobs finished which will have me hanging around the shop for at least another year. It seems machinists with mechanical and welding skills are getting harder to find these days.

 

[MtnMan]

Depending on the type of work being done, I guess it is possible the firefighting water on the ship would be out of service. At least when I was in the Navy, and we had yard birds (ship yard workers) welding/cutting, some poor smuck followed them around with a fire extinguisher.

 

[tweaker2]

Depending on the type of work being done, I guess it is possible the firefighting water on the ship would be out of service. At least when I was in the Navy, and we had yard birds (ship yard workers) welding/cutting, some poor smuck followed them around with a fire extinguisher.

I'm sure you've seen on many occasions where two fire watches are assigned per hot work job, one for the side the welder/grinder is working on and another fire watch on the opposite of the wall/bulkhead.

They're basically being paid for sitting around doing that "circling the thumbs around each other" exercise until relieved, greatly increasing the cost of the job at hand yet necessary from the safety aspect of it all.

 

[hal2kilo]

Depending on the type of work being done, I guess it is possible the firefighting water on the ship would be out of service. At least when I was in the Navy, and we had yard birds (ship yard workers) welding/cutting, some poor smuck followed them around with a fire extinguisher.

That poor shmuck is called a fire watch.

 

[hal2kilo]

Damn thing is still burning. That asset will be out of the fleet for a long time, and may never be recoverable.

 

[MtnMan]

I'm sure you've seen on many occasions where two fire watches are assigned per hot work job, one for the side the welder/grinder is working on and another fire watch on the opposite of the wall/bulkhead.

They're basically being paid for sitting around doing that "circling the thumbs around each other" exercise until relieved, greatly increasing the cost of the job at hand yet necessary from the safety aspect of it all.

When my ship was in the yards, it was ships company that stood these 'fire watches', typically E2's and E3's. Fortunately I had my crow before we went into the yards.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Damn thing is still burning. That asset will be out of the fleet for a long time, and may never be recoverable.

The fire suppression system was offline under maintenance. She's still got around 1 million gallons of fuel onboard.

USS Bonhomme Richard’s fire suppression system not operational as blaze destroys ship; 34 sailors injured

The cause of the fire is still under investigation and the origin of an explosion that also occurred on the ship Sunday is still unknown.

www.stripes.com

 

[hal2kilo]

Navy says the fire is finally out.

Navy says fire has been put out aboard USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego