USS George Washington Fire Update

With the USS George Washington (CVN 73) pulling into port yesterday we are starting to get some early details on the events that unfolded during the fire. The Navy's official website is running a story regarding four crew members who were trapped for 4 hours behind the flames. We are not certain, but we got a tip this picture is of Senior Chief Damage Controlman(SW/AW) Dwight Hill discussed in the story.

Extensive efforts were involved to rescue the four Sailors in question, including maintaining communication.

Electrician's Mate Fireman Jase Exum, one of the four Sailors trapped, said the lack of communication in the beginning is what scared him the most.

"I tried to use the sound-powered telephones, but I could not tell if anyone was hearing me," he said. "When the captain got on the 1MC (shipwide announcing system), it was a relief, knowing they knew we were still alive, and they were still out there trying to get to us."

Exum said that the training he had received helped him to remain calm.

"I really did not know what was going to happen, but I was the only one of the four of us that were trapped to go to Damage Control school," Exum said. "I explained what was happening around us, why they lit off fire extinguishing agents to keep us safe. I was trained as a Damage Controlman and I was really glad that I was because that knowledge kept me calm. We could have put ourselves in a lot worse danger if I didn't know certain things -- should we go now, should we wait, should we try to make it up on our own."

The word "shipmate" was used and remembered throughout the day.

Clearly these sailors won't need an essay to define the term once they get settled in the Pacific.

The Navy is doing a very good job handling this incident. I understand there is some frustration with families, communication with families can always be better, but what we are observing is professionalism at every level, in the moments of crisis and afterwards... exactly what we expect and want to see.

The Navy Times is also reporting on the GW fire, and with this quote, our concerns appear confirmed, this was not a small fire.

The fire, which the skipper described as “significant,” had started near an auxiliary boiler space and spread through a cable supply and exhaust trunk. Capt. Dave Dykhoff, George Washington’s commanding officer called it “probably the worst one I’ve been involved with.”

We are not going to speculate damage, no point. We are confident the reporters are going to uncover every angle of that story over time. What we keep thinking is how good a job the crew did. We are getting only small details of the event, details like 15 firefighting teams, crew members trapped for 4 hours, and details regarding the smoke and heat in the area located near No. 3 pump room. There really isn't a lot of room to fight fire back there...

As we think about how the smoke and heat would have just consumed those spaces, we think it is pretty incredible nobody was seriously injured.