I bet that it was Halon that stuff will displace oxygen very quickly which of course kills fires but also any humans unlucky enough to be exposed to it as well.
Freon is not a gas specifically it is a copyrighted name for refrigerant sold by DuPont it can be a gas or a liquid depending on its temperature.They must have been using Halon which is shorting of the name Halomethane which is found in some refrigerants but by itself Halomethane is a gas which is why it is used as a fire suppressant.The author of the article made a mistake there.
The US military used to use Halon in many of its sensitive electronics facilities but stopped some time in the 1980s or so I have been told.Some private companies use it in high value electronics facilities as well though generally where there are few people roaming around as without a breathing apparatus you will suffocate in seconds.
The fact that a Russian sub would have such a system throughout implies that the Soviet and then Russian Navy relies very heavily on draft sailors with poor skill sets unlike the US Navy, Royal Navy and most western navies which have mostly professional sailors that do not need constant supervision by SNCOs and officers they are also very well trained in damage control which would include fire fighting and any western submariner is easily twice as skilled at damage control as the typical sailor.
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