[Ed. – This was first reported Sunday morning. The ship is USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), a Wasp-class “big deck” amphibious ship (amphibious assault ship and command ship for an amphibious strike group). Bonhomme Richard is in a maintenance period pierside and had limited crew on board at the time. Much too early to speculate on what happened. Fires are by no means unheard of during maintenance availabilities; setting off massive explosions is rarer (the reporting appears to indicate the fire started first, and an explosion or explosions followed). This will be a setback for planned rotations. The Navy isn’t so well-stocked with big-deck amphibs that this can be taken in stride.]
More than a dozen sailors and several civilians have been hospitalized following an explosion on a Navy ship in San Diego on Sunday, officials said.
A fire broke out aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard sometime around 8:30 a.m. local time, said officials with the Naval Surface Forces. The blaze escalated to a three-alarm fire, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, which assisted in battling the fire along with base and shipboard firefighting teams.
Seventeen sailors, as well as four civilians, are being treated at a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Mike Raney, a spokesman for the Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, confirmed to ABC News Sunday afternoon.
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