I dont know about that. But I would assume that if there was welding going on in the vessel, it would be fuel/arc hybrid methods. Navy or civi. Pure electrical metal working creates enormous amount of EMI. On a boat like this where the whole thing it a conductor you could fry parts of the electronics and not even realize it 'till months later.

So if you are using fuel, there is always the possibility of fire. navy guys are trained to stop these fires at all cost. civi's are trained to avoid injury and regroup, hence why this got out of control. Doom off. Nobody is in the wrong here. it happens.