3rd Fleet standdown follows electrocution - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

3rd Fleet standdown follows electrocution

SAN DIEGO — The Navy’s top West Coast commander ordered all ships and shore activities to review existing electrical safety procedures, including the placement of warning tags designed to prevent electrical shock from electrical hazards.

The directive, issued Feb. 24 by San Diego-based 3rd Fleet, came five days after a chief petty officer suffered a fatal electrical shock while he was working in an auxiliaries space aboard the carrier Ronald Reagan. The incident is the Navy’s second electrocution in recent months; a sailor was killed Nov. 28 aboard the frigate Rentz.

Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, the 3rd Fleet commander, ordered all ships and shore commands to complete a “review of existing safety and tag-out programs,” Cmdr. Gregory Hicks, a 3rd Fleet spokesman, said Monday.

Each command must complete its review and report to 3rd Fleet by March 26, Hicks said.

“We rely upon the warfighting readiness of the fleet, and making sure that … sailors are safe and providing the readiness of the fleet to do that mission is paramount,” he said. “We want to make sure that the processes and procedures are being reviewed.”

The directive applies to afloat and shore units in 3rd Fleet’s area of responsibility, and deployed ships en route to the West Coast — these include the carrier Carl Vinson that’s making a homeport change to San Diego — will have to complete their safety reviews when they return, Hicks said.

Officials didn’t cite any specific reason for the fleetwide order but the measure indicates some concerns, following the two recent deaths, that commands and crews follow naval regulations and procedural manuals that are designed to reduce risks, guard against electrical shock and safeguard the fleet. These include the use of tags to mark potential hazards such as an energized circuit or live wire.

Navy officials have not yet provided details about each of the fatal incidents, which are being investigated.

“Those incidents in themselves are serious enough to warrant this. This response was that we’ve had electrical shock injuries, we’ve had these deaths,” Hicks said. “We wanted to make sure the fleet was aware.”