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."
Had bad experiences when I was 22 and in port too (Score:5, Interesting)
Pardon my ignorance here. But I have a question.
I know that fire in a sub is considered one of the most dangerous threats there is (every crew-member is trained in fire suppression on a sub). But since this ship was presumably unmanned and in dry dock, and presumably also still air-tight, why didn't they just close all the hatches in the effected areas and shut off the oxygen? I can't imagine a fire in such an enclosed space would last very long without incoming oxygen.
Turn them into Moored Training Ships! (Score:4, Interesting)
Some folks in the community are already bandying about the idea that this boat be turned into a moored training ship for nuclear propulsion training, the way they did with the MTS-626 and MTS-635.
On those ships, you do not need to have all of the electronics gear, torpedo armaments, or anything else... you just need an operational reactor, which is all towards the aft end of the boat in the first place. As the fire occurred in the forward end of the boat, this is a very likely scenario. Since the MTS-626 and MTS-635 are getting older by the day (they are old Lafayette class boats built in the early 60's!) and there is a need for replacement anyway, this seems like a good way to go.
Re:Had bad experiences when I was 22 and in port t (Score:5, Interesting)
The ship is never unmanned. There is always people in the engineering spaces except for very few limited special conditions during a defueling of the reactor and there is at least one person forward of the engineering spaces as a roving watchstander.
I'm not sure about the specific conditions while in drydock but normally, any temporary setup (hoses, pipes etc) that passes through a water tight door has to have a quick disconnect or a way to isolate or cut the obstruction away so the door can be shut easily and quickly. I don't recall ANY circumstance where the reactor tunnel water tight door (the door that separates the forward part of the ship from the engineering spaces above the reactor compartment) could ever have anything passing through it and that door had to be shut at all times unless you are actually passing through it.
As for fire and flooding on a sub? I went through one flooding and two fires. The flooding was pretty bad and scary but at least you are "aware". You can still see, hear, and move around freely to isolate and fix it. Any type of fire almost immediately fills the entire compartment with heavy smoke, even small transformers, coils, actuators, etc can have a much bigger bark then a bite. It is scary. In 10 seconds you can't see or breathe and running away is NEVER an option. There is no "fire" department or any safe place to go. You have to immediately respond and act quickly to save you and your shipmates lives. The ship has breathing masks spread out in places and standard air type valves to plug them into all around the ship and you are trained how and where to find them in the dark. It is very scary when you have to unplug your mask, hold your breath and walk 10-20 feet in complete blinding smoke hoping you can find the next place to plug in your mask. All of this while trying to roll out a fire hose in an area about 2.5 feet wide with cabinets and pipes all around and fumbling with your mask and its hose and coordinate with other people you can not see and barely hear. You also have to check and make sure the air is cut off between compartments, luckily, the valves and air pipes can be shut from the adjacent compartments. It's hard to describe in words in a forum post but there is a lot going on. Submariners train for this and other situations over and over and over again. You have to know where every piece of damage control gear is on the ship, every hose, every type of extinguisher, every pump, every locker with breathing masks, know how to find the connections where to plug your mask in, who is in charge when, what information to relay, how to secure your space, how to remove an electrical panel, know what is flooding or on fire and how to get the power off to it etc.. If you give the wrong location of the source and someone shuts that source down, you could be screwed because the fire/flooding will rage on and you lost some other vital capability by shutting down good running equipment. Same extensive training with flooding, reactor "issues", loss of propulsion etc as well. You spend more time training and running exercises than anything else. I was on a submarine for about 10 years. Everyone makes jokes, picks on nubs, did some hazing within new Navy guidelines etc but when the shit hit the fan or something was going wrong, people stepped up and had your back 100% every single time. The option to walk or run away from a threat is not there. Stepping outside for a while is not an option.
Happy Memorial Day to my fellow shipmates and those that have served in the armed forces. I Thank You.