K-84.

This is coolbert:

From the Daily Mail Online we have this latest story from an event occurring almost two months ago now. Russian nuclear submarine on-fire, the blaze hard to extinguish, nuclear disaster however averted. I can only vaguely remember reading about this incident in the newspaper, it was not widely followed, but here is the follow-up and details.

"Did they lie? Russia 'narrowly avoided nuclear disaster' after blaze engulfed submarine - despite officials saying no warheads were on board"

NO warheads on board the missiles but nonetheless a near catastrophe. Missiles on the sub with torpedoes and mines, all "alive" and lethal and threatened. BUT NO atomics other than the reactors. [well, that is enough, two reactors, isn't it!!]

* "Respected publication claims there were nuclear warheads on board"
* "Russian officials said at the time it wasn't armed"
* "For a day Russia was on the brink of catastrophe"

"The fire started when welding sparks ignited wooden scaffolding around the 18,200-tonne submarine at the Roslyakovo docks, 900 miles north of Moscow and one of the main shipyards used by Russia's northern fleet."

Welding torch sets afire the rubber anechoic coating of the hull. Fire spreads, hard to put out. Rubber when ignited is difficult to extinguish. There are enormous piles of used rubber tires in the U.S. that when ignited, burn for years, all efforts to douse the fire ineffectual!!

[welding torch starts a fire during refit or repairs. Sounds just like the Normandie, doesn't it??]
             
"The rubber covering of the submarine then caught fire, sending flames and black smoke 30ft above the stricken vessel."

"'K-84 was in dock with rockets and torpedoes on board,' the magazine [Vlast] said, adding that apart from the nuclear weapons the submarine was carrying torpedoes and mines as well as its two nuclear reactors."

[when the Russians refer to rockets, they mean MISSILES!]

This K-84 [Russian designation] is a Delta class nuclear powered submarine firing intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now called the Ekaterinburg.

From a comment to the Daily Mail article thanks to Dave of the UK:

"I am more worried about the safety of the vessel during its next voyage, the hull suffered temperatures in excess of 400 C and at the same time 0 to - 5 in air and - 5 in water. The properties of the steel would have altered by tempering, I doubt very much it would be able to dive to its rated depth of 800 feet with a pressure of 2552 kPa without its outer hull imploding."

This sub is irreparably damaged and non-operational from this point forward? Fires of this sort on a submarine are very difficult to fight because of the very nature of the hull design. Compartmenting, the density and layers of the materials used to make the submarine stealthy denies access for the fire fighters. ONLY BY PARTIALLY SUBMERGING THE VESSEL WAS THE FIRE FINALLY EXTINGUISHED!! So it is said.

coolbert.