Fire on nuclear submarine

[Misfit]

Fire on nuclear sub extinguished - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Firefighters extinguished a blaze in a nuclear submarine early Thursday at a U.S. Navy shipyard in Maine after battling it for hours, according to a statement released by the shipyard.

Seven people were injured and were treated either on the scene or at "a local medical facility," the statement from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard read. Among those injured were three firefighters from the shipyard, two ship crew members and two civilian firefighters, who assisted the Navy's fire crew.

The USS Miami's reactor was not operating at any time the fire broke out and remained unaffected and stable throughout, said Capt. Bryant Fuller, commander for the shipyard, which is in Kittery, Maine.

The sub was in dock at the shipyard when the blaze began, where it has been "since early March for an overhaul." Firefighters first responded to the fire at 5:41 p.m. ET Wednesday.

 

[huntr1]

My guess is that the overhaul will take a little longer than originally planned.

 

[b23hqb]

Never been involved with an on-board fire on a sub, but have been on my ship in dry dock for overhaul in 1976. Pretty scary.

A year underway Westpac/Indian Ocean, full operational mode, playing tag with Ruskie subs and destroyers 75-76 with no live fires, yet we had two in a short span in dry dock. Burning insulation and electrical wire coverings are a pain to put, and then keep, out. There seemed to be lots of flammable materials hidden in voids and between bulkheads then are mapped out, especially on the older ships built in the 60's.

Overhaul seems to present the greater chance for fire than underway, due to all the torching, cutting, slicin' and dicin' goin' on.

Better in dry dock than underway, for sure, but still not fun.

Just my old salt observation.

 

[Mabus]

The Miami was in port, on shore power. I'd be a ton more worried if this fire was in the cone. You have time to get out and recover from any reactor related incident...you really don't when the fire is in the cone and headed toward the torpedo room.

Having been in that exact situation a few times (including once underway), I can get a really good picture of what went down on the Miami.

 

[xobxdoc]

The Miami was in port, on shore power. I'd be a ton more worried if this fire was in the cone. You have time to get out and recover from any reactor related incident...you really don't when the fire is in the cone and headed toward the torpedo room.

Having been in that exact situation a few times (including once underway), I can get a really good picture of what went down on the Miami.

A fire underway is very undesirable. My brother-in-law was on the Ranger in the early 80's for the engine room fire that killed 6. He got some rapid fire brigade training that day.

 

[xobxdoc]

A fire underway is very undesirable. My brother-in-law was on the Ranger in the early 80's for the engine room fire that killed 6. He got some rapid fire brigade training that day.

Seven injured in submarine fire at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard | Local News - WMTW Home

 

[Railroad]

My guess is that the overhaul will take a little longer than originally planned.

 

[Railroad]

The Miami was in port, on shore power. I'd be a ton more worried if this fire was in the cone. You have time to get out and recover from any reactor related incident...you really don't when the fire is in the cone and headed toward the torpedo room.

Having been in that exact situation a few times (including once underway), I can get a really good picture of what went down on the Miami.

I used to be with SUBRON 10 doing IMA repairs on subs, but don't recall ever learning the term "the cone." What pray tell is that?

 

[b23hqb]

A fire underway is very undesirable. My brother-in-law was on the Ranger in the early 80's for the engine room fire that killed 6. He got some rapid fire brigade training that day.

Fire Fighting training in the Navy is pretty intense. Even while in the reserves, we went up to NTC Jax for FF refresher training every two years. We were the old schoolers that entered a four sided "engine room" fire from three separate hatches, with a control team of trainers using the fourth entrance.

Entering that space after cooling off the hatch is pretty scary - pitch black roiling oil smoke, with three or four hundred gallons of fuel blowing up just beneath your feet. It was an exhilarating feeling when your hose team met up in the middle with the other three teams, and the fire was out. Over and over again.

Although they use a lot of simulators now using natural gas as the source of fuel for the fires, they still get some good old hands-on training trying to douse a few hundred gallons of fuel oil.

Can't just call 9-1-1 when you shove off.

 

[Mabus]

I used to be with SUBRON 10 doing IMA repairs on subs, but don't recall ever learning the term "the cone." What pray tell is that?

The cone is slang for the front compartment of a submarine. Those who don't work in the engine room are called coners.

 

[desertrat]

Fire Fighting training in the Navy is pretty intense. Even while in the reserves, we went up to NTC Jax for FF refresher training every two years. We were the old schoolers that entered a four sided "engine room" fire from three separate hatches, with a control team of trainers using the fourth entrance.

Entering that space after cooling off the hatch is pretty scary - pitch black roiling oil smoke, with three or four hundred gallons of fuel blowing up just beneath your feet. It was an exhilarating feeling when your hose team met up in the middle with the other three teams, and the fire was out. Over and over again.

Although they use a lot of simulators now using natural gas as the source of fuel for the fires, they still get some good old hands-on training trying to douse a few hundred gallons of fuel oil.

Can't just call 9-1-1 when you shove off.

Had the two week, I think, school out in San Diego. Somewhere out in the sticks. Came home every night smelling like smoke. And it was a bit like hell going into those spaces with the flames coming up and visibility at zero except for the flames you could see.

 

[b23hqb]

Had the two week, I think, school out in San Diego. Somewhere out in the sticks. Came home every night smelling like smoke. And it was a bit like hell going into those spaces with the flames coming up and visibility at zero except for the flames you could see.

It was scary, each time, even though it was a semi-controlled environment. That's why there was always three or four corpsmen and an ambulance around.

Great training, really a lot of fun overall, and you knew you could respond appropriately if the situation occurred on board your ship.

One thing about fires - they do have minds of their own (?) and will do whatever the physical environment allows.

 

[desertrat]

It was scary, each time, even though it was a semi-controlled environment. That's why there was always three or four corpsmen and an ambulance around.

Great training, really a lot of fun overall, and you knew you could respond appropriately if the situation occurred on board your ship.

One thing about fires - they do have minds of their own (?) and will do whatever the physical environment allows.

Just out of A school in Frisco and getting my first ship, the Douglas H Fox, the news of this came over National news two days later. Scared me to death! Those guys were serious about that stuff when I got there.

At the FOX reunion in Baton Rouge October 2002, John Hobbs of Hookstown, PA gave the following personal account of this unfortunate incident.

"We were second day out heading for Vietnam. Just after lunch, we had gone to general quarters. We had been practicing war games 50 miles off the coast of Charleston. We had just concluded a drill of a fire in the boiler room. The fire hoses were sitting on the deck charged and ready, and we were just sitting around on the deck shooting the bull and waiting for the next exercise. We never knew what it was going to be."

We were running at that time on Number 4 Boiler and were getting ready to switch the load to Number 3, when something happened down there; an oil line ruptured. It was under 350 pounds of pressure. I was sitting in the forward fire room when the call came. 'BRAVO 3, FIRE; THIS IS NOT A DRILL!' I went topside and saw black smoke rolling out of both sides midship. I was the 'oil king' which meant I was responsible for refueling and moving the oil around in the ship to keep it level in the water and that type of thing. So I very quickly isolated Bravo 3, the oil going into it. There was a quick trip valve on the deck and we shut it off. I dropped down into Bravo 4 and shut down an entire series of manifold valves going to Bravo 3. All of this happened in a matter of seconds.

When I got back on deck, the men from Bravo 3 had opened the hatch and scrambled up on deck. Billy Burkhalter, BT2 from Columbus, MS, was on fire. There was a cook there who had a water hose, and he just turned around and turned the water hose on him. All his clothes had been burned off. The only things he had on were his shoes. He died three days later. He and I had been playing cards just before all this happened. He had a baby daughter who was maybe two or three weeks old. Robert Rinaldi, BT1, from Taylor, MI died soon after from smoke inhalation, as did Ralph Duran, FA, from Philadelphia who had only been on the ship a week or two. Rinaldi was behind the boiler, and nobody knows what he was trying to do, but maybe he was trying to get down to the bilges where there was water and he could have dropped under it, but he didn't make it. The boiler had gauges that were covered with glass maybe one inch thick, and all this glass was just melted, the heat was that intense. It was incredible when we went down afterwards to see the destruction. In addition to the three who died five others were injured, which included Jerome Davis, FA from Flushing , NY, Robert Dandrow, Hopkins, MI, Stephen L. Ketter, BM3 of Portsmouth, OH, Daniel Russ, BM2 of Green Bay, WI, and Joseph Licata BM3, Leroy, NY.

A lot of people did a lot of things right that day. The damage control parties were fantastic. Chief Distlerath, BTC was in Bravo 1, and neither of his boilers were on line. He lit off one of his boilers and brought it on line while we still had steam pressure. Had he not done that, we would have really been in trouble. Had all of the steam pressure been lost, we wouldn't have had water pressure to fight the fire. We'd have had nothing. Normally it takes two to three hours to bring one of those things up to speed, because you want to heat them up very slowly. In a matter of two or three minutes he had this thing up and on line. Probably broke every rule in the book, but he saved so many lives by doing that. It was a tragedy, but at the same time, a lot of people did a lot of things right. We were fighting for our lives, because with a fire at sea, you have no place to go."

 

[Railroad]

The cone is slang for the front compartment of a submarine. Those who don't work in the engine room are called coners.

Thanks! I just learned something.

 

[b23hqb]

Epic recount. Training pays off, for sure. Everybody on ship, from officers down to the newest SR, is a firefighter first, their job next.

My cousin was stationed on the Forrestal, four years after the big fire off Vietnam that is still a standard training film on how to NOT fight fires, even today.

He always told me that even in the early - mid 70's, the ship was called "Old Tinderbox". Fires were scarily a regular event.

I never really minded the drills, even over and over. Repetitious, boring even, but you could perform in your sleep if need be.

 

[Railroad]

Just out of A school in Frisco and getting my first ship, the Douglas H Fox, the news of this came over National news two days later. Scared me to death! Those guys were serious about that stuff when I got there.

BZ to a great crew!!!

 

[Railroad]

Epic recount. Training pays off, for sure. Everybody on ship, from officers down to the newest SR, is a firefighter first, their job next.

My cousin was stationed on the Forrestal, four years after the big fire off Vietnam that is still a standard training film on how to NOT fight fires, even today.

He always told me that even in the early - mid 70's, the ship was called "Old Tinderbox". Fires were scarily a regular event.

I never really minded the drills, even over and over. Repetitious, boring even, but you could perform in your sleep if need be.

We all referred to the Forrestal as "The Forest fire"

 

[xobxdoc]

John McCain was on the Forrestal during the fire. He was the pilot rescued from his plane when it was engulfed in flames. Is that documentary still required viewing in boot camp?

 

[b23hqb]

John McCain was on the Forrestal during the fire. He was the pilot rescued from his plane when it was engulfed in flames. Is that documentary still required viewing in boot camp?

I would hope so. We watched it a lot in the reserves before every FF training month. It shows the perfect way of how to not fight fires. A very harsh way to realize more and better training was needed.

And to think John McCain survived that just to get shot down and go through hell for years in prison camp.