Very educational post indeed, scott967. Thank you for the added insight.
What is surprising to me is that the ship burned so extensively, with even the island on fire. Obviously flames travel upward, so a fire with explosion on the well deck will be a worst case, but even so, a warship would be expected to be more fire resistant. Perhaps it will turn out that as with the World Trade Center, where the fires were fed by the masses of papers and furnishings once the fuel oil was gone, the gear was more flammable than expected.