UPDATE 4 – 7/14/2020 – 2230 PT
Reports of an explosion occurred on July 12th and still continue to burn on Day 3 on the USS Bohomme Richard (LHD-6), a 40,000 ton Wasp class U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship.
Scheduled routine maintenance in between deployments has brought the large ship to port and remains while Navy fire crews continue to contain the heavy smoke and blaze.
The US Navy said those assigned to the ship were either in local or base housing and all crew were off the ship at the time of the fire when started on Sunday, July 12th at 0830 PT.
The cause of the fire is still unknown and is under investigation.
Mutual aid units including those from the San Diego Fire and Rescue agency were brought in after escalating the incident to a 2-alarm and later as a 3-alarm. Other incident cooperators included: the US Navy, Surface Warriors, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, Federal Fire, local hospitals and resources and countless more.
At the height of the incident, Unified Command was established between Federal Fire and San Diego Fire and Rescue. They would later return their own resources back in service. This occurred in the early afternoon.
REHAB coordinations of hundreds of meals and water were coordinated within Logistics prior to releasing the City fire agency.
Federal Fire was then again lead fire agency along with other naval sailor/firefighters working to bring the blaze under control and working tirelessly to locate the seat of the origin of the fire.
The USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and the USS Russell (DDG-59) shifted berths to a pier further away from the original ship fire to where they are currently safe and less likely to be impacted by any of the flames and heat that the fire is releasing around itself.
The Navy had released a statement in the early stages of the incident, hoping to preserve the ship’s structural integrity but speculations and additional hopes are quickly fading as time passes and more destruction impacts the interior of the vessel increases.
A total of 21 personnel which included 17 sailors and 4 civilians were transported to area hospitals. Their conditions and demographics were unknown and we reserve the right to protect their privacy.
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Photo Credit to Images | US Navy unless otherwise noted.
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Hashtags used for this fire are #USSBonhommeRichard #USNavy #ShipFire #SDShipFire
(c) 2020 NW Fire Blog – Updated 7/14/2020 2250 PT
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