Originally Posted by
SLXOwft
Imagegear, I was thinking of a possibility along those lines but probably just negligence. Not a military story but a paper factory, which was a client of my father's, was burnt to the ground by a blow torch "left" burning on the new roof, there was suspicion it was arson but nothing could be proved.
.....................
Same happened to the WRNS Quarters, HMS Daedalus, for exactly the same reason one evening I think in about 1979, tho the building survived due to the Fire Piquet expanding by over 5000% when the Tannoy announced the location of the fire!!! When the civvie Fire Brigade arrived the audience were 6 deep! There were WRNS bailing out everywhere dressed in various forms night of attire - so I'm reliably informed of course.
Re the ship, it will be like writing off aircraft or even a car after an accident; often there is much additional damage due to the fire fighting efforts in adjacent compartments, particularly if a ship is quite "open" as is often the case with extended refits. Water gets everywhere even when closed up properly as odd seals don't work/get damaged or a fire hose leaks and smoke damage can be widespread - especially if the ventilation is not crash-stopped. Lots of stuff like wiring, for example, will have to go, even if not directly affected by fire, but maybe simply due to the heat of the hot air perhaps venting through several compartments raising the temperatures in them to an unknown level. No obvious signs of damage but still now an "unknown" so will need replacing. With access open for heavy maintenance teams, it's a Damage Control Officer's worst nightmare as the spread of direct and indirect effects is far less restricted - across, up and down!
As I say, my story a few posts above of the Paint Store fire led to quite a bit of damage to adjoining compartments - bearing in mind it was (a) very small, (b) the Damage Control WO was actually stood about 4 m away from it when it started, and, (c) the aircrew had just run out a load of hoses for the "exercise" which were then used by the Ships Standing Sea Fire Party when they arrived so that meant water was on metal quite a bit quicker than expected. I'll leave it to you to decide why he felt it was better to delay the re-entry until the Ships Team had arrived rather than send the aircrew lads in as "Wave 1".....
And my job as allocated to me by the DC WO? "Sir, do me a really big favour ........ just get this lot out of here!" Duty sheep-dog herding aircrew away!
