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?
Except for the plastic cable ties, this exactly describes what happened aboard USS Saratoga CV-60 during a 1973 overhaul. Trash had accumulated in the operations office below the flight deck. A disgruntled sailor ignited the debris which cooked the dense cable runs in the office overhead (ceiling) which conducted the heat away from the fire and melted the vinyl insulation on the wiring. Vinyl is normally self extinguishing, but in this case the heat caused the vinyl to drip in narrow strands which gave enough surface area to support combustion and the fire followed the cable runs forward and aft along the port and starboard passageways. Those in the fire fighting parties reported dense smoke with dripping plastic falling on them and being unable to see the source of the fire they were trying to fight.
When the heat pattern on the flight deck revealed that the fire was following the cable runs, holes were cut in the flight deck and the cable runs were severed to stop the fire.