Old, Unrelated Clip of US Warship on Fire Passed Off as Recent Attack by Houthis

This video is from 2020 and shows the USS Bonhomme Richard that caught fire in San Diego.

Fact-Check: This video is from 2015 and shows the USS Bonhomme Richard that caught on fire in San Diego. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

A video purportedly showing the assault ship, USS Bonhomme Richard, in flames is being shared to falsely claim that Yemen’s Houthis recently attacked it at the Red Sea.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 17.5K views at the time of writing this story. (More archives of claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is this true?: This claim is false as the video dates back to 2020 and shows the USS Bonhomme Richard catching fire in San Diego, California, USA.

How did we find out?: We divided the viral video into several keyframes and ran Google reverse image on some of them.

• We came across a report by an Iranian news organisation, Khabar Online. The report contained the same video as the video.

• We compared some frames of the viral video to the news report and found similarities

Here is a comparison between the two videos. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

• The report read that it showed "close-up" images of the destruction of the US vessel.

• With a relevant keyword search, we found a report by FoxNews and Global News from July 2020 that the warship had caught on fire in San Diego and left 21 people injured.

• Further, CBS San Diego noted that the warship was supposed to be on a two-year overhaul in the city. It also said that the vessel burnt for five days until it was contained.

• CBS also reported that the CFI determined the fire was caused by an exposed flame coming into contact with dense cardboard containers, referred to as tri-walls, stacked in the lower vehicle storage area.

• Further, according to the New York Times, a sailor was being accused of intentionally putting the vessel on fire had been found not guilty “on all accounts” by a Navy judge.

• CNN has stated that the US Navy plans to decommission and dismantle the USS Bonhomme Richard following an evaluation that revealed the extensive cost of repairing the ship to be in the billions of dollars.

Conclusion: The video is old, from 2020, and shows the USS Bonhomme Richard catching fire in San Diego, US and not the Read Sea, as claimed.

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