Training Shows In Fighting Ship Fire

Disclaimer: Instead of doing my own take on this subject, it was simpler and easier to provide a full copy of the article by Charles Selle on the subject of training for things like shipboard fires, and how it was when he was much younger, on a tour with other kids to NS Great Lakes.

Lessons learned by sailors at Great Lakes aid in containment

Article by Charles Selle 7/16/2020

One of the perks of being a patrol boy in junior high school was the annual trip to Naval Station Great Lakes, where part of the tour included watching sailors practice fighting shipboard fires. Those visits to the training area returned this week with the footage of the USS Bonhomme Richard smoldering in San Diego Bay.

Never mind that our school officials drafted young boys to escort youngsters across the busy state highway armed with nothing but a pearl-colored faux Sam Browne belt. Yet, no first or second graders perished on our watch.

Today, adults, toting vivid “stop” signs are paid to be crossing guards at most Lake County schools. They include those who escort Warren Township High School freshmen and sophomores, and Viking Junior High School students across Grand Avenue at O’Plaine Road in Gurnee, where motorists wait often when school lets out.

We patrol boys were not reimbursed by the school district, but as thanks for our annual service in rain, snow and heat, we were bused to Great Lakes. The school principal was a Navy man; his boss, the superintendent, had served in the Marine Corps.

On the way to the naval base, they would swap friendly gibes, the Marine pointing out the Navy is merely the Corps’ taxi service, and the ex-sailor countering that the Marines couldn’t go anywhere without the Navy.

Before the firefighting drills, lunch was included at a Navy galley. The quality of food failed to entice any of us to enlist in that branch of the service, but at least it wasn’t an Army mess.

Then came the fire-control display, which was quite realistic, at least to a preteen. Oily smoke billowed from a land-based mock-up of a ship’s bridge as flames rose.

Sailors grouped together in protective gear sprayed water and other fire suppressants to extinguish their training blaze. As one damage-control instructor said succinctly: “When a fire breaks out onboard ship, there is no 9-1-1 to call.” Every sailor becomes a firefighter in order to fight shipboard fires and control damage.

Since Sunday morning, more than 400 sailors and fire crews from across San Diego Bay have been fighting the stubborn blaze aboard the Bonhomme Richard, a 23-year-old, 840-foot amphibious assault ship which has been at its sprawling home port since 2018 for routine maintenance. The vessel, used to deploy Marines in amphibious landings, normally has a crew of 2,000 sailors and Marines.

Fortunately, only 160 sailors were on the ship when the fire broke out, according to The Associated Press. That was enough to initially confront the blaze. Still, there were 61 injuries and no deaths.

Thirty-eight sailors and 23 civilians were treated, mostly for minor injuries related to firefighting where temperatures reached nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the AP reported. The blaze onboard the ship, named for the Bonhomme Richard commanded in the American Revolutionary War by Capt. John Paul Jones, is one of the biggest fires on a Navy ship outside of combat, the San Diego Union-Tribune said.

Most of the sailors on Jones’ namesake Bonhomme Richard trained at Great Lakes, either for boot camp or at damage-control school. The blaze has been fought around the clock and hopefully struck by the time this is being read.

Navy officials say the ship so far is stable and the structure is safe, as is the 1 million gallons of fuel inside the vessel. It’s too early to tell how much damage the fire has done to the ship, and whether it will survive or be scuttled. The cause of the fire was an explosion in which the fire quickly spread through the Bonhomme Richard’s wide-open hangar space which added oxygen to the flames, reports said.

If the ship is saved, sailors trained at Great Lakes would appear to have learned their drills well. Battling a fire on a large ship isn’t like putting out a garage fire.

There was a quick and immediate response of shipboard firefighters, who couldn’t activate the Bonhomme Richard’s foam-extinguishing fire system because of the explosion, Navy officials said.

Despite being at a peaceful anchor, the San Diego Bay fire illuminates that danger remains ever-present to those who serve in our military. From the devastating Bonhomme Richard fire, real world lessons have been learned and likely enhance Navy training for future damage-control specialists.

Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.

Category: Navy