Russia: Fire Onboard Nuclear Sub Extinguished
Russian officials, agencies report fire extinguished, no radiation threat
Moscow (CNN) — A fire on a docked Russian nuclear submarine has been fully put out, Russia’s Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday according to state media.
Fire safety violations are seen as the most likely cause of the fire on the nuclear vessel Yekaterinburg, the official RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Flames spread to the submarine Thursday after material caught fire at a repair dock in Roslyakovo, which is in the Murmansk region in northwest Russia, on the Barents Sea, the official Itar-Tass news agency reported.
A spokesman for the military prosecutor’s office for the Northern Fleet, Alexander Grigoryev, told the agency the prosecutor’s investigation into the cause of the fire was continuing. He said seven people were still being treated in a hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning from the scene of the fire, Itar-Tass reported. Two others have been discharged from a hospital, RIA Novosti said.
The submarine was undergoing planned repairs at the dry dock when the blaze broke out and its nuclear reactors were already halted, Itar-Tass said. Radiation levels in the Roslyakovo area are within normal background levels, the Emergencies Ministry in the Murmansk region said in a statement on its website, indicating there is no threat to the local population.