6 injured as fire still burns aboard nuclear-powered USS Miami

Submarine on fire at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

www.seacoastonline.com

KITTERY, Maine — Multiple firefighters were reportedly injured while battling a fire aboard the USS Miami nuclear-powered attack submarine Wednesday evening at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, according to a shipyard official and emergency radio communications.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I don't know much about this type of vessel. The fact that it's a nuke has me a bit nervous.

Anyone out there with knowledge if this is a major nuclear hazard???

I know it's silly question. Bu. t if anyone could inform - that wpuld be fantastic!

Thank you!



www.seacoastonline.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by nerdyclutzyblonde

Kittery Police Chief Paul Callaghan said there is no danger to the public and no evacuations in the area

Read more: www.wmur.com...

I wonder how he can be so certain? I guess he is expert though and surely any potential harm would be acknowledged and acted upon, as in draggin it out of the bay or something. I too am curious about the volatility of fire and nukes

ETA: A note of comfort?

Shipyard public affairs specialist Gary Hildreth says the fire is located in the forward compartment of the sub. The shipyard says the sub's reactor wasn't operating at the time of Wednesday evening's fire and wasn't affected.

Originally posted by nerdyclutzyblonde

Submarine on fire at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

www.seacoastonline.com

KITTERY, Maine — Multiple firefighters were reportedly injured while battling a fire aboard the USS Miami nuclear-powered attack submarine Wednesday evening at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, according to a shipyard official and emergency radio communications.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting... as I clicked on the link, I thought to myself, ' I wonder if this is nuclear, what a perfect false flag, who's the terrorist this time?'

Although, this is most likely just a random fire, started by accident... lets hope nobody gets hurt.

As of 7:30 p.m., black smoke visible from Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H., continued to billow from the dry dock. A Portsmouth fire truck was on standby at Peirce Island.

keep on with the updates, def would like to know more.

It depends where the fire is. If the fire was contained within a couple of bulkheads without allowing it to progress to the nuke reactors then, it is safe.

On the other hand, it could be dangerous and out of fear to the public's reaction they will lie saying that is safe (although it probably isn't).

Edit: Each submarine/ships on a dockyard have trained sailors/submariners that will act in an emergency situation and they can sustain the fire to a very minimum and/or putting the fire out entirely. At the same time, the local military fire department answers to that emergency as well thereby providing more assistance to the sailors/submariners if needed.

Awesome, this is only 2 hours away from where I live!
Maybe if I leave now I can get there for the initial blasts of radiation!

On a serious note, of course this is right next door to me.

Every submariner on board is trained intensely for fires in the sub. I think they spend there first 2 months training for fires in dolphin school. My cousin is on a fast attack sub stationed in Hawaii.

They have to re-cert every month for fire training. Those boys know what they're doing. ...Its probably electrical related.

According to social network chatter - it's still going. If it's STILL going since 5ish - 6ish...doesn't seem to be looking good. I've asked how big the fire is - still waiting on a reply.

I was a former submariner on a nuclear vessel. I wouldn't too much into this. Fires that need firefighter help are not common on the reactor side. Also, there isn't a whole lot of room in those submarines. When we do firefighting with our SCBA tanks and full FFE's on, we get hurt with bumped heads and such so imagine firefighters trying to go down 30 foot ladders with that stuff and then navigate a smokey small environment they are not used to. These aren' like building fires. Its not uncommon for concussions and stitches in our fire fighting drills due to the closed in environment. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Does anyone really think that the military will say that there is even a slight chance of a catastrophe from this sub? Have they ever told anyone in advance yet? Why would they start now? I'm sure hat people working on them are trained things are normal. Just like the workers in nuclear power plants think.

Remember that Russian sub that caught on fire a few months back? I think it was the stealth coating on the hull that was burning then, and that could be the case now. If the fire is on the hull it would make sense if they used firefighting resources that weren't native to the submarine.

Originally posted by nerdyclutzyblonde
According to social network chatter - it's still going. If it's STILL going since 5ish - 6ish...doesn't seem to be looking good. I've asked how big the fire is - still waiting on a reply.

The entire vessel is compartmentalized. If it didnt start in the engine room, it will not get there.

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist

Shipyard public affairs specialist Gary Hildreth says the fire is located in the forward compartment of the sub.

According to wikipedia, the USS Miami is a Los Angeles class submarine.

There are two watertight compartments in the Los Angeles class of submarines.
The forward compartment contains crew living spaces, weapons handling spaces and control spaces not critical to recovering propulsion.
The aft compartment contains the bulk of the submarine's engineering systems, power generation turbines and water making equipment.

So at least initially, the nuke engine is not in danger.
But they might not have anywhere to sleep tonight.

reply to post by nerdyclutzyblonde

Thats my beloved city where i live . rich in history charles dickens sherlock holmes henry the 8th maritime ship nelsons victory ship the warrior ship and plenty of bases at you doorstep and alot of secrets held there.. the most important naval place there is . we have had a few fires lately . apologies i am in the uk portsmouth original dock city.. tired i guess

All I know is what I was taught in kindergarten.
They said

Grab your Proton,
place it between your Neutrons,
and kiss your Atom Goodbye.

They said duck and cover,
was another option,
if you did not mind crayons,
melting from your desk,
and dripping on your head.

I swear whenever someone says "there's no danger" I automatically disbelieve them now, especially after Fukushima.

reply to post by alfa1

That's the thing about 688-class boats: you have all of two compartments, versus four for earlier designs. So if there's a fire in the forward compartment, the entire compartment is probably full of smoke, making life uncomfortable for anyone within (they are trained to and will be wearing Emergency Air Breathing masks that are stored all over the boat for such emergencies), and putting all sorts of nasty, hazardous materials within reach.

The forward compartment also includes the torpedo room, which can normally mean big trouble, but in dry dock all the weapons should be absent. The diesel room can also be a bad place for fires and, ironically, even empty sanitary tanks can be dangerous due to methane accumulation combined with "papier-mâché" on inner surfaces.

But probably the worst possible scenario would be a fire in the battery room, which can lead to a powerful hydrogen explosion. Fire spreading to the battery is a very dangerous possibility that the firefighters need to be prepared for.

Meanwhile, some poor guy in the back is on duty as the Shutdown Reactor Operator. He's responsible for the safety of the reactor while in port or dry dock, and though the reactor is shut down, it must be supplied with power to keep the main coolant pumps running and controls/instrumentation operational. This can't be an easy shift, to understate things.

Submarines in dry dock are subjected to a lot of heavy work, especially a lot of welding and grinding in a lot of cramped, hard-to-reach places where ventilation has to be carefully controlled, and combustible substances like solvents and paint fumes from one work area can inadvertently find their way into another, all of which can lead to problems like these.

Four reported injuries so far is bad enough, here's hoping no one is trapped inside and as yet undiscovered.




Edit to add: In dry dock, most of the crew will be on leave, off training somewhere, at home with their families or in the barracks. A skeleton crew remains on board to keep an eye on things while maintenance is conducted, and there is a duty rotation for them, but aside from duty days where they have to stay aboard, most of the crew is elsewhere and shouldn't have any trouble finding a place to sleep.

Thanks for the replies with all the great info! I can't worry about it cause I can't do anything about it.

Here's a couple of articles.



Here's a link saying it's a four alarm fire

Here's another one with some interesting "chatter" in the comments section.

www.wcsh6.com... 112/Fire-aboard-nuclear-submarine-at-Portsmouth-Naval-Shipyard

reply to post by nerdyclutzyblonde

Thanks for the update.
So the fire started at 5:41PM and now at 10:00PM they are categorizing it as "moderate?" Is that better or worse than the initial fire I wonder? I would assume it is better than the initial fire. Is 3 hours an unusual amount of time to get a fire at "moderate" levels?

I have mixed feelings about this because on one hand it seems potentially volatile in a very significant way, yet surely we would be hearing of an imminent catastrophe, and on the other hand, it seems to be reported as being taken care of with no reason to worry from the Police Chief.