Fire May Leave US Nuclear Sub Damaged Beyond Repair 228
Hugh Pickens writes "AP reports that a fire that swept through a nuclear-powered submarine in dry dock at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has caused such extensive damage to its forward compartments that the 22-year-old Los Angeles-class attack submarine might have to be scrapped. 'These submarines were designed decades ago. So they're no longer state of the art,' says analyst Loren Thompson. 'If this vessel returns to service, I will be amazed.' The fire broke out while the Miami was on a 20-month stay at the shipyard for an overhaul, and it took firefighters from more than a dozen agencies twelve hours to put out the fire, described as intense, smoky, and a 'hot scary mess.' 'It takes a lot of guts to go into a burning building. But the idea of going into a submarine full of hot toxic smoke — that's real courage,' said U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree after meeting with the shipyard commander. Firefighters isolated the flames so they would not spread to nuclear propulsion spaces at the rear of the submarine. There was nuclear fuel on board the sub, but the reactor has been shut down for two months and was unaffected. Rear Admiral Rick Breckenridge says an investigation has been launched into what caused the fire, but he expects that investigation to take a long time to complete and wouldn't say if human error has been ruled out as a cause of the fire, or if the focus is on mechanical issues."
Non-toxic smoke (Score:2, Insightful)
"It takes a lot of guts to go into a burning building. But the idea of going into a submarine full of hot toxic smoke — that's real courage."
I wasn't aware burning buildings didn't involve hot toxic smoke, unlike submarines. Do burning buildings have warm aromatic vapors instead?
Re:Had bad experiences when I was 22 and in port t (Score:1, Insightful)
When a boat is in dry dock chances are it is not air tight. That is when some heavy maintenance is going on and one of the first things they do is start making hull access cuts in the boat so they can get stuff in and out of it. Plus those hatches do not just flop close you have to use hydraulics from the inside to close them, there are usually all kinds of cables and stuff running through those hatches like power and air since everything is shutdown.
You also cannot assume the ship is unmanned. When my Sub was in dry dock it was constantly manned with at least a few people on watch and who knows how many ship yard guys down there doing work. The fact that the fire got so bad is surprising to me. Anytime there was any kind of hotwork going on there were firewatches stationed.
Re:I don't understand how this is possible (Score:4, Insightful)
What the hell was burning? The subs are nuclear powered so it wasn't fuel. What are we talking about here? Bedding? I just don't understand.
As other people pointed out, why weren't the hatches just closed? A fire won't last long if the hatches are closed.
Finally, there has to be some kind of fire suppression system on these subs. Don't tell me all they've got are some hand held fire extinguishers.
Anyway, this is of course very sad. But I find it more weird then anything else.
1) You would be shocked what burns once you get past about 500 degrees (hint: plastic, rubber, vinyl, paint) but I suppose you think a sub is nothing but metal on metal with some metal to insulate the electrical wires? 2) Hatches don't close themselves, especially in the right order to make sure that the nuclear fuel in the sub doesn't get licked by flames (pretty bad scenario). 3) Fires don't fight themselves in an enclosed space. Do you think they have sprinklers in there or what? Maybe a little Halon to put the fires out and kill any crewmen in that section of the ship?