US: Navy report cites failures by crew in 2020 warship fire, says it was 'preventable'

An elaborate US Navy report, on Tuesday, concluded re were sweeping failures by commanders, crew members and ors that fuelled arson fire at USS Bonhomme Richard in July 2020. 400-p document, which was obtained by Associated Press on Tuesday, described inaction by at least three dozen crew members leing to colossal fire that annihilated much-vaunted American warship. On July 12 last year, an arson by a sailor set amphibious assault ship on fire. blazes t only charred giant ship but also inflicted injuries on 63 sailors and civilians. While fire was extinguished in four days, it left ship severely damd. Owing to huge repair costs (US$3.2 billion), USS Bonhomme Richard was decommissioned on April 15  and sold for scrap. 

incident also triggered a full-fledged investigation and ultimately led to a sailor being charged for arson. w, latest report has said that disaster was 'preventable and totally unacceptable'. “Although fire was started by an act of arson, ship was lost due to an inability to extinguish fire,” report said, concluding that “repeated failures” by an “inequately prepared crew” delivered “an ineffective fire response.” As per investigative report, re were four main ‘areas of failure’ including ship’s dysfunctional fire station, unpreparedness of crew, lack of familiarity of offshore firefighters with ship and ineffective oversights by high-level commanders. 

“ crew h failed to meet time standard for applying firefighting nt on seat of fire on 14 consecutive occasions leing up to July 12, 2020,” latest report concluded.

USS Bonhomme Richard Arson 

massive blaze occurred on morning of July 12, in a stor area above where Marine Corps vehicles are mostly stored on USS Bonhomme Richard that looks like an aircraft carrier. As per reports, sailors were starting to fight fire when a subsequent blast caused vessel to be evacuated. devastating fire quickly grew, spreing to ship’s hangar deck, where it spre through most of ship’s upper decks and continued to grow with great force. massive blaze rd for five days before it was finally doused. Reportedly, navy officials at that time said that when flames were at ir peak, temperatures reached as high as 1,200 degrees.

With inputs from AP 

File Im: AP