Fire burst out, yesterday, aboard a Russian-flagged nuclear submarine that is currently being repaired at the Zvezdochka shipyard, which is owned by United Shipbuilding Corporation.
Yevgeny Gladyshev was quoted by Itar Tass as saying that fire burst out at the Oscar II class submarine Orel’s interhull space, in close proximity to its ninth compartment. Another media source added that sound insulation and rubber vibration caught fire between the vessel’s external hull and inner hull.
There weren’t any armaments aboard and all nuclear fuel from the reactor of the submarine had been previously unloaded. Everybody was evacuated safely and there were no reports regarding any potential injuries.
In order to cope with the situation, an attempt was made to flood the space located between the inner and external hull but it was not sufficient enough, as they fire was not completely extinguished. According to the latest reports, teams will be flooding the dry dock and the vessel is to be submerged partially.
“We are going through the final preparations of filling up the dry dock. It was determined as a necessary course of action in order to completely extinguish the fire,” commented Ilya Zhitomirsky, spokesman for USC.