Updating this thread an investigation has been done on the firefighting response, which was totally imcompetent. A summary:
Some good from the incident and use for the ship prior to scrapping:
So Admiral Grace Hopper was not entirely correct when she said:
Remember Pearl Harbor?
I don’t think the problem there was down to a pile of oily rags.
Interesting read about the failures in command.
Students of the Space Shuttle losses would note some depressing similarities. Also similarities with the loss of HMS Sheffield.
Probably the biggest danger to any military force is the complacency born of an extended peacetime.
I don’t think the sort of degradation in safety standards that led to the loss of Bonhomme Richard is something that goes away with wartime readiness. Indeed, the greater pressure and urgency of war might tend to exacerbate safety problems during in port maintenance, replenishment, and upkeep periods, not alleviate them. See the events preceding the Port Chicago Mutiny as a for instance.