Originally Posted by
msbbarratt
In my experience the wiring in US naval vessels is far from ideal for the prevention of spreading fire. Up in the ceiling of the major corridors there has been, on all the US naval vessels I've been on, a complete rats nest of cable, covered in paint, held in with plastic cable ties. If that lot catches fire it would spread along all the corridors leading away from the seat of the conflagration, and also start filling up the corridors with hanging, burning cables and thick, toxic smoke.
This would make it harder for firefighters to get to the seat of the fire, never mind contain it.
I wonder if this has been a factor in this incident?
Most likely it was.
I toured one of the earlier LHDs under construction during a visit to the Ingalls shipyard long ago, it was indeed a rats nest of wiring.
I've no idea whether there are any Navy specific fire resistance requirements now, but all the stuff looked commercial grade, judging by the labels on the spools.
If memory serves, the US had a nuclear plant under construction essentially wrecked because the wiring caught fire while a construction worker was using a candle to check for air leaks .
So cabling fires are a real risk and often hugely destructive. But I'd have thought the military would by now have switched to non flammable cabling