Fire on Bonefish Reportedly Began in Crew Quarters

A fire broke out in the crew quarters of the Bonefish before the submarine was wracked by explosions and fire that killed three crewmen, a survivor of the accident said Thursday.

The Navy has refused to speculate on the cause of Sunday’s accident off the Florida coast, but civilian submarine experts said the explosion could have been connected with a buildup of hydrogen gas in the battery compartments.

Ronald Larsen, the chief electrician’s mate, said there was a “small fire in berthing, and a couple of people manned fire extinguishers and attempted to put it out.”

He said there were initial reports that the fire was under control, then reports that it was spreading.

“From everybody I talked to there was an explosion later, maybe five minutes down the road,” he said. “I never heard the explosion, being so far aft.”

Crew members had donned gas masks and made an orderly evacuation despite thick, poisonous smoke, he said. The sub’s emergency lights “hardly did any good because of the density of the smoke,” Larsen said.

No one was available for comment on Larsen’s account, an officer at fleet headquarters said.

The 219-foot Bonefish, one of the Navy’s four remaining diesel-electric subs, was cruising at periscope depth Sunday when the first explosion hit its forward battery compartment, the Navy said earlier. The batteries are used to power the sub when it is below the surface.

The Navy announced Thursday that the bodies of two of the three victims had been removed from the submarine, which was being towed by a salvage ship to Charleston, its home port.