Russian Carrier Fire

[tomahawk6]

Russia's only carrier is said to be onfire in port.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russias-only-aircraft-carrier-on-fire-in-port-news-agencies/ar-AAK36CK?ocid=spartanntp

- mod edit to clarify thread title -

 

[NavyShooter]

600 square meters of fire?

Holy cow.

That's a huge space...unless it's a fire in the Hangar deck and they're just quoting the whole volume of the space or something?

That's - ungood - for the people onboard.  Hopefully they find those currently missing safe. 

Fire is a hazard for every ship - and every ship I sailed with had a fire onboard during my time onboard.  From a rag fire in the hangar on CHA, a DG that 'blew up' inside the enclosure, a ROD plant that decided to spontaneously combust...I think the 'average' is 10 fires per year for our ships - so, statistically, each ship will have a fire about once every 2 years or less.

This is why we train.

NS

 

[Baz]

Fire is a hazard for every ship - and every ship I sailed with had a fire onboard during my time onboard.

We had a fire in the black water compartment  alongside in Greece that opened the black water system.  From all accounts it was crappy for the attack team.

 

[Kilted]

600 square meters of fire?

Holy cow.

That's a huge space...unless it's a fire in the Hangar deck and they're just quoting the whole volume of the space or something?

That's - ungood - for the people onboard.  Hopefully they find those currently missing safe. 

Fire is a hazard for every ship - and every ship I sailed with had a fire onboard during my time onboard.  From a rag fire in the hangar on CHA, a DG that 'blew up' inside the enclosure, a ROD plant that decided to spontaneously combust...I think the 'average' is 10 fires per year for our ships - so, statistically, each ship will have a fire about once every 2 years or less.

This is why we train.

NS

I wonder if that number directly correlates to how often you have soldiers on board. Because we are pretty good at starting fires. 

 

[Navy_Pete]

I wonder if that number directly correlates to how often you have soldiers on board. Because we are pretty good at starting fires.

Unless it's a dead ship condition (ie nothing running and all batteries disconnected) there is always some kind of fire risk. A ship is a mobile industrial plant that is regularly beaten around by the ocean, so there is a lot of wear and tear.

Not having any sailors on board does significantly reduce the fire risk (which is why dead ship condition is preferred for planned long distance tows), but at that point it's just a rusting collection of steel and cabling that is no use to anyone, so if you have a ship in operation, it's part of the package.

This started while alongside in a maintenance yard from welding though, so also shows why we have strict procedures for hot work like this.  6500 sq ft is a crazy big fire though; hopefully it is just a small fire in a huge space, and not something like the main machinery space on fire.

 

[The Bread Guy]

And Wikipedia's up to date on the ship's status ...

 

[Colin Parkinson]

They seem to have no luck with that ship.

 

[OldSolduer]

They seem to have no luck with that ship.

Luck or a poor design or poorly trained crewmen or a combo of all three.

Any experts?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Well one of the incidents was the drydock she was in sinking, and she getting damaged by a falling crane on said dock. I think a generally lack of training and upkeep across the board.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

650 square meters is no big deal on a carrier.

She is 35 meters wide at the main hull. Tons of full width compartments below the main deck under the hangars in such ships. Magazines, mess decks, storage rooms, weapons assembly bays, shops, etc. etc. Many such compartments would have lengths of 20, 30 even 40 or 50 meters.

So I read this as single compartment fire, though a larger one. And if it's a mess deck, then lots of burning material.

 

[Good2Golf]

We had a fire in the black water compartment  alongside in Greece that opened the black water system.  From all accounts it was crappy for the attack team.

I see what you did there.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

A little more info.  Death toll in aircraft carrier fire in Russia rises to 2

MOSCOW (AP) — A crew member who went missing during a fire on Russia's only aircraft carrier was found dead Friday, raising the death toll from the blaze to two, the nation's military officials said Friday.

The fire on the Admiral Kuznetsov broke out during welding work at a shipyard in the Arctic port of Murmansk on Thursday and spread quickly through the carrier's internal compartments. The ship's crew and emergency teams spent more than 20 hours battling the blaze.

The military reported two crew members dead, and authorities in Murmansk said 11 other people were injured.

The Investigative Committee, Russia's top state investigative agency, opened a probe into a possible violation of safety rules.

The Admiral Kuznetsov has been plagued by breakdowns and setbacks since its launch in 1985. The massive blaze follows a 70-ton crane crashing onto the Admiral Kuznetsov's deck in October 2018, when a mammoth floating dock holding the ship sank.

The crane left a hole of 20 square meters (215 square feet), and the loss of the dock significantly slowed down repairs on the carrier since the navy lacked another of comparable size.

The fire will further push back the work to fit the ship with modern control systems and new weapons.

In 2016, the Admiral Kuznetsov was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean as part of Russia's campaign in Syria, launching the first carrier-mounted attacks in Russian naval history.

It lost two carrier-borne fighters during the Syria mission.


And a couple of short videos here. 

 

[Navy_Pete]

650 square meters is no big deal on a carrier.

She is 35 meters wide at the main hull. Tons of full width compartments below the main deck under the hangars in such ships. Magazines, mess decks, storage rooms, weapons assembly bays, shops, etc. etc. Many such compartments would have lengths of 20, 30 even 40 or 50 meters.

So I read this as single compartment fire, though a larger one. And if it's a mess deck, then lots of burning material.

Apparently it started in the 'first power unit' in some fuel in the bilge, and spread to a larger area. Not really sure if it went from an enclosure to the larger space, or to adjacent compartments, but it's still a big ass fire to burn for 20 hours, and sounds like it was in a machinery compartment of some kind. In any case, bad day for the crew and dockyard mateys.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a30211682/admiral-kuznetsov-fire/

 

[Cloud Cover]

Nothing to see here...

 

[Colin Parkinson]

As much as it would stick in their throats, perhaps they should get the Chinese to build them one

 

[The Bread Guy]

One analyst's read of the damage ....

We’re still waiting to learn (and may never know) how much the December 12 fire aboard the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will cost the Russian Navy.

According to Interfaks, OSK chief Aleksey Rakhmanov said the bill will exceed 300 million rubles* ($4.7 million).

Fire on Admiral Kuznetsov

Rakhmanov told Russian journalists:

    . . . there’s no final figure. The commission continues to work. Given that the work of firefighters and law enforcement organs has been gathered up, I think we still require some time to reconcile it. We simply weren’t allowed on-board for a long time.

    . . . I don’t want to scare or delight anyone, but there’s definitely no 90 billion [$1.4 billion] there. But I think we won’t get away for 300 million.

Recall the fire took a day to extinguish and two Russian naval personnel — an enlisted contractee and an officer — died, and 14 others were injured.

In the immediate aftermath, Rakhmanov claimed Kuznetsov didn’t sustain critical damage. He rejected a December 19 Kommersant story indicating that the bill for fire repairs could reach 95 billion rubles. The business daily said the estimate came from a Northern Fleet staff officer.

The OSK chief said equipment in the engine room where the blaze occurred was already dismantled. Welding sparks started the fire and it apparently spread to electrical cables.

Completed in the early 1990s, the ill-fated sole Russian carrier is being renovated under an April 2018 contract. The ship was damaged in late October 2018 while floating out of the PD-50 dry dock at Roslyakovo. Kuznetsov was initially set to be finished in 2021, but the date has slipped to 2022.

The carrier reportedly will receive a navalized version of the Pantsir-S1 (SA-22 Greyhound) gun-missile air defense system, new boilers, pumps, flight control and communications systems, as well as repairs to its turbines.

* - $6.2M Canadian