Experts Criticize ATF, Navy Finding on Cause of Bonhomme Richard Fire; Case Against Sailor...

An expert in electrical engineering told a Navy court that an electrical short in a forklift or some faulty batteries could have sparked the fire that ultimately led the service to scrap the former USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), countering the Navy’s acceptance from a federal fire investigation that a disgruntled sailor deliberately set it.

Andrew Thoresen, a forensics engineer, said that in a limited, four-hour visit to the ship’s lower vehicle deck one year ago, he found a wire in a forklift’s main conductor feed had a “globule” of melted copper wires.

Such a globule likely was the result of a “localized spot” of arcing activity that would generate high heat by touching the metal framing, ignite nearby flammable materials strewn about the stowage area “and cause the damage we have in this case,” Thoresen testified Wednesday at the Article 32 preliminary hearing for Seaman Apprentice Ryan Mays, accused of hazarding a vessel and aggravated arson in the July 12, 2020 fire aboard Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego.