UPDATE - Cause Of Continuing Fire On Board Warship At San Diego Naval Base Unclear - Firefighters

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2020) The cause of the fire on board amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard stationed at the US Naval Base in San Diego, California, is still unknown and it is unclear how long it will take to extinguish the blaze, local firefighters have announced.

"Currently there are two firefighting teams fighting the fire aboard the ship," Federal Fire San Diego Division Chief Rob Bondurant said on Sunday afternoon, as quoted by the Naval Surface Forces of the US Pacific Fleet on Twitter. "Federal Fire is rotating their crews aboard the ship with @USNavy firefighting crews from the waterfront to fight the fire in order to find the seat of the fire and extinguish it," Bondurant added.

The Navy Region Southwest tug boats continue to combat the fire from the bay, according to the Federal Fire San Diego Division. The fire started at around 8:30 a. m. local time (15:30 GMT) on Sunday.

"The origin of the fire is still unknown and is pending investigation," chief Bondurant said.

Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck told reporters on Sunday afternoon that the fire started in the "lower vehicle storage area" (the lower cargo hold) of the ship, but the exact place where the blaze initiated was still unknown.

"It's this huge open area where you store a lot of equipment and everything else and so that's where we believe it started," Sobeck said at a press conference broadcast on Facebook.

According to the Navy spokesman, a safety perimeter has been established around the ship, which has about one million gallons of fuel on it. The smoke coming from the continuing fire is not toxic, Sobeck assured. He added that all the injured sailors are in stable condition and that the sailors who continue to help extinguish the blaze are starting to see some results.

"They are fighting their ship and they are saving their ship," Sobeck said adding "we are starting to see results."

San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell told CNN's Erica Hill on Sunday afternoon that USS Bonhomme Richard could continue to burn for days, "down to the water line." According to Stowell, there was an explosion on the warship at the time when the personnel were being evacuated. Sobeck said the explosion occurred because of rising temperatures and pressure caused by the fire, but the exact cause of the explosion remained unknown.

A defense official told CNN that initial reports have suggested that the fire could have started in the well deck, where small landing craft enter and exit the belly of the ship.Meanwhile FOX 5 San Diego reporter Jason Sloss said on Twitter that the fire could have been caused by a welding accident.

According to the Naval Surface Forces, 17 sailors and four civilians were wounded amid the fire and are being treated for non-life threatening injuries at a local hospital.

Two other ships stationed at the San Diego base, guided-missile destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS Russell, have been moved further away from the fire, the naval forces said.

There were a total of 160 sailors aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, which was going through a routine maintenance cycle, when the fire started. The ship's total crew size is around 1,000. The Naval Surface Forces said that all sailors present on board on Sunday have been evacuated and are accounted for.