Navy News (navy.mil) USS George Washington Investigation Complete, Senior Leadership Relieved

       I don’t know about anyone else, but I am having trouble with the Navy’s explanation of the fire on board the USS George Washington. To qualify my self to comment, let me say that I am a former navy sailor. I was stationed on a Ship though not an aircraft carrier for 3 1/2 years of my total navel experience of 8 years. I am a life long non-smoker. I will always support my Navy and sailors, but I’m not buying the Navy’s story.

       According to the Navy News artical above the fire “most likely” was started by a cigarette. “most likely” means they don’t really know how the fire started. the article says that the mystery smoker lit up a smoke in an “unmanned Auxiliary Boiler Exhaust and Supply space”. First question I have is: Whats a boiler room doing on a CVN? Certainly not propulsion, most navy ships no longer have ”boiler rooms” per Se. Navy ships use Nuclear power, gas turbine engines and more efficient Diesel engines. there are some navy owned supply ships that may still have boilers used for propulsion, but there are no Air Craft Carriers using boilers for propulsion. The only thing CVN would use a “boiler” for is to provide hot water to the crew and evaporate salt water to make fresh water. On the ship I was stationed on the boilers for water and evaporators were located in the ships main engineering spaces (engine rooms) for you non sailor types. That aside. The real key words that stand out to me and raises what is called in the navy “red flags” or as we enlisted sailors called them “Bull S#%&@ Flags” are “unmanned, Exhaust and Supply Space”. Wile in the Navy I had the glorious honor of having to paint one of these “exhaust spaces”accessed in the chilled water air handler room for witch my radio division was responsible. the access hatch for the room was small with multiple levers to seal the hatch, it opened inward so that a sailor would not be hit by an outward swinging door pushed by air pressure while the fan is running. As for the designation of supply space, well that means that the supply department was responsible for the space because it was located or accessed from a space used by the supply department, which most likely was the room that housed the compressors and or pumps for the ships freezers and or refrigeration storage rooms. In my case my exhaust space could be called the “Exhaust and Radio space” by the author of the article. The oil stored in the compressor room was in drums sealed as shown by an Associated Press photo on foxnews.com. The inference of improper storage simply means the oil drums were not stored in the ”Hazmat locker” with other flammable and “hazardous materials”, those oil drums may have had to be there for a reason unknown to the investigators. My exhaust room it self was a small room with a vent tube extending from the floor but not all the way to the ceiling. one wall of the room was the exterior wall of the superstructure with a oval shaped opening with nothing more than a metal grid covering it. In the tube farther below there was a very loud fan blowing air up the tube and out of the exterior wall opening. this was probably the same for USS George Washington though the vent and room may have been bigger. The ship was underway when the fire started so the exhaust fan was running. the air rushes so fast in that room that you cannot light a match or lighter in it, a lit cigarette would flare up and burn the smoker, so they should have found a dead charred smoker or at least a sailor with burns on his or her face.  A lit cigarette would also have been sucked out of the smokers mouth and the little fire ball blown out of the ship. It is very unlikely therefore that a smoker  in the exhaust room started the fire. If one could smoke in that room they would have desposed of the but out side the ship via the opening in the exterior wall. As for the liquid oil in the adjacent room, that being the coolant compressor room, it was in drums and sealed, a cigarette could not have lit those. No sailor would dispose their but in and open oil drum.

        Here is a better “smoker” scenario. An engineer lights a smoke in the “boiler room”, walks next to or under the exhaust vent, the old Marlboro is disloged from his/her mouth, sucked up the vent burning hotter because of the air flow, hits the cealing of the ”unmanned Exhaust and Supply room, recherch’es with the whipping air towards the wall of the room opposite the exterior wall opening, lodges between or behind boxes improperly stored by supply personell in the windy room, provided there were box there. The rushing air blowing on the cigarette quickly ignites the boxes they go up in flames. Sounding and Security watch personell walks down the passage nearby unaware of the fire at this point, because smoke is being exhausted out side the ship by the vent fan. The vent is in the aft of the ship (the rear) of the ship so no one else notices the smoke right way either. As the fire continues the paint and the insulation on the interior walls of the Exhaust room starts to burn engulfing the whole room in flames. The cable runs that should not have been running trough that room in the first place, heat up and burn, as they burn the air starts to forcefully rush its way through the holes made in the walls dividing the the spaces for the cables, The paint and isulation in the Compressor room where the Oil drums had been stored started to burn also. no one walking down the passageway would not have smelled smoke at this point because not may people would walk by the compressor room, but if they did the water tight door to the room would prevent smoke from getting in the passage way. They would however have noticed the heat radiating from the room on the passage wall. As the compressor room burned and became engulfed in flames the drums heated up and exploded, now they had an oil fire on there hand spreading quickly. 

       That’s at least more reasonable. The Navy may not be able to tell the truth because the real cause of the fire may be classified. In my experience Ship casualties were classified. This Navy P. C. C.M.A (Politically Correct, Cover My A**) explanation will cause the senate to waste time investigating the Navy’s smoking policy and Hazmat storage Policy . It will also cause the P. C. Navy leadership to waste time having smoking safety briefings and smoking safety stand downs.  Come on Navy you can do better than that!