Quote:
Originally Posted by Kapitan
I heard about the fire, from what i was reading the submarine was in dry dock and the fire burnt the anechoic tiles nothing to major by all accounts,
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Then why have they intentionally
flooded the boat when it was just the skin burning. Helicopters and water cannons were unable to gain control of the fire.
Quote:
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the russians have always unloaded thier submarines before they go into dry dock
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Or so they say. It seems they did not do it at least this time.
The boat was brought first to a facility at Okolnaja Bay, and then to another facility at Jagelnaja Bay, both locations identified to be storage sites for SLBMs and specialised for SLBM arming and dearming of boats. The Jekaterinburg was heavily damaged, and there is no point in uselessly moving a smoking wreck around and to these sites if it were not for that purpose they exist for: loading and unloading SLBMs. Says the Russian paper.
Further details given: a fire started on the construction frame outside, but it seems there also was a fire inside the boat, and "just meters away" - so they write - from the missile bays, and a hundred meters away from the reactor. Getting the SLBMs off board as fast as possible was an utmost priority, they write, since the boat was "smoldering" (=glühen) from the heat caused by the fire.
The fire was out of control since they could not end it even in a 24 hour operation - they needed to flood the boat, finally. Situation must have been quite desperate, they give me the impression.
Repairs will last until 2014 at least, and cost at least 12.5 million Euros.
Kommersant-Wlast refers directly to
several sources inside the Russian fleet command who gave them confirmation for the story.
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Maybe somebody has access to the original Russian paper and can summarise the original article.