Fire aboard the USS Washington

[trackend]

Anything burns when its hot enough, too many soft furnishings and to much alloy employed in construction was a big factor for the fires being so uncontrolable on the vessels during the Falklands. Heat induction is very hard to stop unless in its initial phase, even houses that are detach from the one on fire often spontaniously combust. and flues air ducts etc can cause the fire to pass several stores and start a fire well away from the original seat of the fire.
I have attended a few minor fires in my work roll over the years (mostly cable ducts and equipment rooms).
But in a confined space on board a vessel I can well imagine it must be a bloody nightmare to fight. I'm glad there were not fatalies on the Washington lets hope the intial cause can be found to stop it happening again.
Glad you're ok Howie, regards to your shipmates.

[wilbur1]

I just read that it burned 80 miles of cable, seems like a lot to me

[RabidAlien]

Heh....you've never had to trace a wire through three compartements, Wilbur! Those ships probably have close to a thousand miles worth of cables. The problem with vessels like that is that, no matter how well you clean, there's always oily residue in the vent ducts, outboard areas, and between the false-bulkheads. The lagging on the ship's pipes and inner hull area, once ignited (takes a fairly high temp, but an oil fire in the bilge will do the trick), burns extremely hot, spreads extremely fast, and puts out more oily black smoke than a burning tire does. Quite literally, within a matter of seconds, your average living-room sized area will be down to zero visibility. The guys fighting the fires have to know exactly where all of the EAB (Emergency Air Breathing system) air manifold hookups are, or find someone else to hook into. Heat induction doesn't help, either, especially considering how a fire can spread into an inaccessable space and then on into a compartment nobody expected, as Trackend stated. Now, on top of that, add countless tons of paint, fuel, ammunition, cooking stuff, paper, and tons of other flammable materials....it doesn't take much to get a fire burning, and if its not contained immediately, it can get out of hand fast. Probably started with a loose wire or something causing an arc, or a loose cigarette butt (yeah...there're rules....but sailors kinda bend them at times. *looks innocent*). Any number of things could've caused it. My hat's off, though, to the guys who fought that beast and got it under control. It ain't easy.