CHAPTER 306: CHAPTER 5: OVEREXCITED (PART 2)

The seawater sprayed outside is almost futile in extinguishing the flames deep inside; it can at most provide some psychological comfort.

We can now open a betting site and wager whether this supercarrier, which costs as much as 13 billion US Dollars, will be completely scrapped and become a pile of expensive scrap metal due to this fire?"

The comment didn’t forget to add cynically: "Hopefully, this fire won’t cause massive casualties and a long repair period like the ’Forrestal’ and ’Enterprise’ did.

Better not turn into a scenario where the ’Miami’ nuclear submarine and the ’Good Man Richard’ amphibious assault ship were burned directly to scrap."

At this point, the world realized that the United States had bigger trouble — its precious aircraft carrier was genuinely on fire.

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The fire on the ’Ford’ began burning at night. Despite the efforts of hundreds of damage control personnel, the raging flames didn’t subside at all; rather, they intensified by spreading through ventilation ducts and combustibles.

By dawn, non-combat personnel on board had already evacuated.

Port fire trucks and local fire department vehicles arrived with blaring sirens, their orange-red fire trucks contrasting sharply with the gray warships.

Admiral Alvin, bearing four silver stars, was on the verge of losing his mind. Faced with a string of situation reports, he had exhausted all means, fighting like a trapped beast.

The ’Ford’ displaces over a hundred thousand tons, its massive hull like an iron island floating on the water.

The flight deck is tens of meters above ground level, accessible only by a few narrow ladders.

This acts as a natural barrier, severely restricting the rapid deployment of firefighters and heavy firefighting equipment.

The water jets from outside disperse mostly in the high air, and for the raging fire hidden inside the hull, it’s akin to scratching an itch through one’s boot, hardly touching the crux.

Admiral Alvin understood that the only hope lay in activating the ship’s own fire suppression system and making the sprinklers distributed throughout the cabins work.

Just then, the Admiral’s adjutant ran over with a dazed look, speaking despairingly with a trembling voice: "General... there’s an extremely bad situation.

Workers trapped in the ’living and residential area’ resorted to using acetylene cutters to forcibly slice through several fire-resistant sealed cabin doors after discovering all escape routes were blocked to survive."

The Admiral, both shocked and angry, exclaimed, "Where did they get acetylene cutters? Who allowed them to bring such things on board?"

Renovations, it’s normal to bring equipment.

Tearing down steel-built cabins, one must have some fierce tools, right?

So, wasn’t it natural for those workers to bring acetylene cutters on board?

The lieutenant colonel sobbed, "What’s worse is that the fire has already spread to the power systems of the damage control equipment.

Some crucial fire pumps have lost power and cannot pump water to extinguish the fire. Currently, the temperature in the power cabins has dramatically increased, and the nuclear reactor..."

The lieutenant colonel’s voice came to an abrupt halt, not because he chose to stop, but because the situation had deteriorated to an unspeakable state.

Even with the naked eye, Admiral Alvin could directly perceive that not only were no more firefighters boarding the ’Ford,’ but rather, personnel in fireproof suits were frantically evacuating from the ladders.

The reason is simple; the internal structure of this supercarrier is incredibly complex, with decks spanning up to twenty-five layers. Each deck is divided into numerous functionally diverse cabins, like a gigantic maze.

Even seasoned naval soldiers usually only familiarized themselves with their working area.

For outsiders, entering it is akin to a blind person touching an elephant. Moreover, now the ship is filled with high temperatures and toxic smoke, visibility nearly zero.

Those firefighters who barely managed to board the ship often couldn’t even locate the fire source accurately before being driven back by waves of heat and smoke.

If they don’t evacuate, only the fate of being consumed by fire awaits them.

As for those damage control personnel most familiar with the ship’s internal structure?

During the months-long ship maintenance period, thousands of crew members had long taken turns for leave, with some ashore enjoying a rare vacation, while others were unfortunately infected by the pandemic receiving treatment in hospitals.

Trying to recall all of them in a short time is no less challenging than ascending to the heavens.

A loud roar came from the sky, as an MH-60 ’Sea Hawk’ helicopter whizzed over carrying a massive yellow fire bucket, dropping over a thousand liters of water onto the smoke-laden flight deck.

This amount of water is utterly inadequate for the raging flames within the hull, evaporating in an instant without a trace of cooling effect.

Admiral Alvin stood like a statue at the pier’s bridge, slowly turning, casting his eyes over dozens of high-ranking military officers behind him, and unable to suppress his fury, he roared:

"Why are you all standing here? Use your pig brains, come up with something!

At least find out which damn bastard started this fire! If I get ahold of him, I’ll execute him a hundred times!"

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In the medical room of the ’playground’ shelter.

Xiao Jinlang lay stiffly on the hospital bed, a white neck brace fixed around his neck like a shackle.

Having passed fifty, his temples were streaked with gray. Falling hundreds of meters from high altitude, for these old bones, was akin to a nightmare of escaping death.