SAN DIEGO — After an exhaustive four-day battle against a raging fire, the blaze aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego is believed to be fully extinguished, but crews are working Friday to verify that no fires are still burning.
The Chief of Naval Operations Mike Gilday was in San Diego on Friday from Washington D.C. The Four-Star Admiral toured the ship, inspected the damage and asked some questions about how this fire could have started.
He held a quick press conference explaining the next steps that will be taken in the investigation.
As of early Thursday afternoon, "all known fires" on the warship were out, Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck announced. "Our fire teams are investigating every space to verify the absence of fire," Sobeck said.
That process must be complete prior to the start of an official inquiry into what caused the conflagration -- which included several explosions aboard the vessel -- how much damage it did and "what the future of the ship will be," the admiral said.
During a briefing at the naval base south of downtown San Diego, Sobeck described the 22-year-old ship as ravaged -- its melted aluminum superstructure bent at a 45-degree angle -- but not dead in the water.
"The ship can be repaired," he said. "Whether or not it will be repaired will be determined."
Though all the flames aboard the ship were believed to be out as of 2 p.m. Thursday, firefighters continued their efforts to get its superheated interior back to safe conditions.
A total of 40 sailors and 23 civilian firefighters suffered various minor injuries, mostly heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation while taking part in the battle to defeat the blaze, Navy officials said.
The fire erupted shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday in a part of the vessel where cardboard and tri-wall boxes are kept. Soon, thick columns of acrid smoke were wafting above the bay and across much of the city. There were 160 sailors and officers aboard the ship when the fire broke out, Navy spokesman Brian O'Rourke said.
Because the ship was undergoing maintenance work when the fire erupted, its built-in flame-suppression system was inoperative, according to base officials.
After about 90 minutes, authorities decided to remove all firefighters from the vessel for safety reasons and go after the blaze by remote means, including helicopters and fireboats surrounding it on the bay.
About two hours after the fire began, a blast of unknown origin shook the vessel and "threw several firefighters off their feet," the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department reported.
The inferno eventually sent below-deck temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees and left the ship listing due to the amount of water it had taken on from the firefighting efforts, Navy officials said.
About four hours after the ship began burning, the Navy moved the USS Fitzgerald and USS Russell to berths farther away from the fire, according to Mike Raney, Deputy Public Affairs Officer with the Naval Surface Force.
Late Wednesday night, authorities again evacuated all personnel from the ship "out of an abundance of caution" because it had begun to shift to one side, Navy officials said. By 6 a.m. Thursday, the vessel had stabilized, and firefighters reboarded to continue attacking the blaze.
Over the course of the all-out, multi-agency firefighting operation, three helicopter squadrons conducted more than 1,500 water-bucket drops, helping cool its superstructure and flight deck, while tugboats blasted the smoking warship with water cannons.
Among the precautions in the area of the blaze instituted by the U.S. Coast Guard were a one-nautical-mile safety zone on the waters surrounding the ship and up to 3,000 feet in the air above it. Users of neighboring marinas were being advised to "utilize protective safety measures" as well, according to the agency.
The Navy, for its part, will "work together with regulators, (and the) county and state in protecting our environment and preparing to address the community's concerns as we move forward to the next phase," Sobeck said.
Thursday morning, San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez announced that some residents in the 92102, 92113 and 91950 ZIP codes who have been bothered by pollution from the fire could get one-night hotel vouchers, though availability was limited and prioritized to people with relevant health problems. Interested parties were asked to call the city's 211 community services telephone line.
The Bonhomme Richard is the third warship in U.S. naval history to bear the name, which means "Good Man Richard" in French and honors Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac."
The vessel has been homeported at Naval Base San Diego since the spring of 2018, when it returned from a six-year port switch to Sasebo, Japan while becoming the command ship for Navy Expeditionary Strike Group Seven.