KITTERY, Maine — A fire on a nuclear-powered submarine at a Maine shipyard has injured six people, including a firefighter.
Fire crews responded Wednesday to the USS Miami SSN 755 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on an island in Kittery, a town near Portsmouth, N.H., popular with tourists.
The shipyard says the injured people have been treated and released. The firefighter suffered heat exhaustion.
The fire still was not out shortly before midnight but shipyard spokesman Capt. Bryant Fuller says the situation is improving.
Shipyard public affairs specialist Gary Hildreth says the fire started in the forward compartment of the sub. The shipyard says the sub’s reactor wasn’t operating at the time and was unaffected.
The cause of the fire hasn’t been identified.
Not much from the news wires…ummm this is kind of a big deal…..
Especially since the rumor is that the sub is a total loss.
$600 million…flush
The fire is being reported as in the forward compartments and not near the reactor, which is heavily isolated. Four firefighters have been treated and released. The shipyard fire department drills for this type of event constantly. The shipyard announced a press conference was going to be held at 10:15 PM.
What does “heavily” isolated mean? It is in fact IN the submarine.
I was wondering the same thing!?
I think it means they shut a water tight door.
Very thick steel bulkheads fore and aft. No chit it’s IN the submarine. Do you think it’s pierside and runs the sub with an extension cord? Here’s a link to a cutaway view: http://navyshipgallery.blogspot.com/2008/11/los-angeles-ssn-688-class-submarine.html
This will cost a bundle to repair now.
It will, but they will do it. If you do a search on the USS Hartford (SSN-768), you’ll see the lengths the navy will go to on a newer submarine that has been damaged.