Veteran U.S. Navy Submariners Explain Why Fire Is So Deadly Aboard A Submarine

Updated Dec 1, 2019 5:54 AM EST

The harrowing fire aboard the Russian nuclear-powered mini-submarine Losharik that claimed the lives of 14 of Russia’s most experienced submariners and shocked the world community this week is a reminder of just how threatening fire is to submarines and the brave people who operate them. Any fire aboard any vessel can be perilous, but flames, and the noxious smoke and gasses they produce, unleashed within tight confines and self-contained atmosphere of a submarine present a whole other level of danger for ship and crew. But don’t take it from this landlubber. Instead, veteran U.S. Navy submariners Aaron ‘Jive Turkey’ Amick and Eric Moreno offer candid and detailed explanations of the threat of fire on submariners in the wake of the Losharik incident.

In one of his outstanding ‘whiteboard’ explainers , Amick goes into the nuts and bolts of the threat of submarine fires and how they are dealt with. As you can see, there is much more to it than what immediately meets the eye, from how submarine floors ‘float’ on ledges against the hull, to the different classes of fire, including those that can start by countermeasures that are actually activated by seawater and burn incredibly hot in a sustained manner, to how little time there actually is to diagnose and address a fire before it becomes catastrophic.

Veteran U.S. Navy submariner Eric Moreno, who runs the popular Reddit page R/Submarines and the Tac Ops podcast , also shared his insights with The War Zone regarding the menacing nature of fire on submarines.

Every submarine has a different way to deal with casualties. This is based on how different they are designed due to mission requirements. The Ocean Gate research submarine Titan deals with casualties completely different than a military research submarine like Losharik . This is due to submarine design, personnel, technology available, and training. One thing that is similar among every submarine, and ship for that matter, is the procedures utilized to deal with each casualty. Here is a picture of the PIP—Procedure In Place—on the USS Cavalla (SS-244). This is a metal book that holds the procedures for every casualty.

Every submarine has a different way to deal with casualties. This is based on how different they are designed due to mission requirements. The Ocean Gate research submarine Titan deals with casualties completely different than a military research submarine like Losharik . This is due to submarine design, personnel, technology available, and training.

One thing that is similar among every submarine, and ship for that matter, is the procedures utilized to deal with each casualty. Here is a picture of the PIP—Procedure In Place—on the USS Cavalla (SS-244). This is a metal book that holds the procedures for every casualty.

PIP aboard USS Cavalla. , Courtesy of Eric Moreno

Grabbing a rocket booster and running out of the torpedo room to throw it topside is just one of the many crazy things we are accustomed to. Submariners run drills multiple times a day almost every day to ensure they are ready for any emergency. The three most common casualty drills ran on any nuclear submarine are fire, flooding, and random reactor drills. All three are treated specially by the US Navy. Even when a US submarine is in port, the submariners drill for fire and flooding casualties. The U.S. Navy’s submarine force trains all their submariners in the “Fire Fighting Trainer” and the “Wet Trainer”. This gives the submariners the most accurate and controlled environment to simulate what can’t be simulated underway. Fires onboard submarines, historically, have been the most common casualty. That is why it is the top priority—train against the biggest threats.

Grabbing a rocket booster and running out of the torpedo room to throw it topside is just one of the many crazy things we are accustomed to. Submariners run drills multiple times a day almost every day to ensure they are ready for any emergency.

The three most common casualty drills ran on any nuclear submarine are fire, flooding, and random reactor drills. All three are treated specially by the US Navy. Even when a US submarine is in port, the submariners drill for fire and flooding casualties. The U.S. Navy’s submarine force trains all their submariners in the “Fire Fighting Trainer” and the “Wet Trainer”. This gives the submariners the most accurate and controlled environment to simulate what can’t be simulated underway.

Fires onboard submarines, historically, have been the most common casualty. That is why it is the top priority—train against the biggest threats.

So what causes fires? Cigarettes burning in butt cans/ashtrays can be the most common reason fires are called away. A full butt can will make a nice size fire. Cigarettes are the only open flame allowed on most submarines. The U.S. Navy prohibited the use of cigarettes on submarines on Jan 1st, 2011. Electrical fires are the second most common submarine fire. They can be relentless and require special knowledge to secure power or else they will continuously reignite. Fires on submarines are special. You cannot treat them like a normal house fire. During a house fire, the heat and smoke have a way to escape. It is dissipated into the atmosphere. There is no means of escape on a submarine, not just for the people but also for heat and smoke. The heat and smoke immediately rise and collect in the highest space. Military submarines like nuclear fast attack submarines (SSNs), nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), and even some diesel-electric submarines (SSK) have multiple levels. This allows heat and smoke to dissipate. The larger a space is the more atmosphere there is to ‘absorb’ a fire. This gives the crew more time to properly react. That “PIP” shown above takes time to pull out, read, and execute. The smaller your submarine is the smaller the atmosphere is. The smaller the atmosphere is the less time you have to react. Single level submarines like the Losharik force the heat and smoke sideways, directly toward the entire crew. Smoke inhalation is more common on single level submarines due to the minimal time the crew has to don emergency breathing masks. Emergency breathing masks are easily accessible but still take time to put on with a proper seal. The fact that her crew put out this fire, surfaced the boat [or mated with her mothership] and got towed back to Severomorsk without further incident is a true testament to the ones that survived.

So what causes fires? Cigarettes burning in butt cans/ashtrays can be the most common reason fires are called away. A full butt can will make a nice size fire. Cigarettes are the only open flame allowed on most submarines. The U.S. Navy prohibited the use of cigarettes on submarines on Jan 1st, 2011. Electrical fires are the second most common submarine fire. They can be relentless and require special knowledge to secure power or else they will continuously reignite.

Fires on submarines are special. You cannot treat them like a normal house fire. During a house fire, the heat and smoke have a way to escape. It is dissipated into the atmosphere. There is no means of escape on a submarine, not just for the people but also for heat and smoke. The heat and smoke immediately rise and collect in the highest space.

Military submarines like nuclear fast attack submarines (SSNs), nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), and even some diesel-electric submarines (SSK) have multiple levels. This allows heat and smoke to dissipate. The larger a space is the more atmosphere there is to ‘absorb’ a fire. This gives the crew more time to properly react. That “PIP” shown above takes time to pull out, read, and execute. The smaller your submarine is the smaller the atmosphere is. The smaller the atmosphere is the less time you have to react.

Single level submarines like the Losharik force the heat and smoke sideways, directly toward the entire crew. Smoke inhalation is more common on single level submarines due to the minimal time the crew has to don emergency breathing masks. Emergency breathing masks are easily accessible but still take time to put on with a proper seal.

The fact that her crew put out this fire, surfaced the boat [or mated with her mothership] and got towed back to Severomorsk without further incident is a true testament to the ones that survived.

Losharik is a very unique, deep-diving, special missions submarine. Its name is a reference to its exotic internal design that is anything but apparent when viewing her externally. Moreno states:

Losharik was named after a Russian stop motion circus animal magically made of balls by a circus performer…. Seriously. This is in reference to her internal hull structure being made of spheres instead of the standard cylinder setup. This gives Losharik the ability to dive down to very extreme depths.

Russia says that the fire occurred in Losharik’s battery compartment. One can only imagine how its unique ‘spherical pressure vessels strung together’ design would have impacted the fire and how it was able to be effectively fought. But regardless of the design, it’s ironic and chilling to think that the biggest threat to any submarine, a vessel that operates below hundreds or even thousands of feet of water, is fire.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2019年12月1日凌晨5:54

本周，俄罗斯核动力小型潜艇“洛沙里克”号发生惨烈火灾，夺去了14名俄罗斯经验最丰富的潜艇兵的生命，震惊了世界。这场火灾再次提醒我们，火灾对潜艇及其勇敢的操作人员构成了多么严重的威胁。任何船只上的火灾都可能造成危险，但火焰及其产生的有毒烟雾和气体，在潜艇狭小封闭的空间内肆虐，对舰艇和船员来说更是危险重重。不过，这并非我这个外行人的一面之词。在“洛沙里克”号事件发生后，美国海军资深潜艇兵亚伦·“吉夫·火鸡”·阿米克和埃里克·莫雷诺将坦诚而详细地解释火灾对潜艇兵的威胁。

在一段精彩的“白板讲解”中，阿米克深入剖析了潜艇火灾的威胁及其应对措施。正如你所见，这其中的奥妙远不止表面看起来那么简单：从潜艇底板如何“漂浮”在船体上的凸缘上，到不同类型的火灾（包括那些由海水激活的反制措施引发并持续高温燃烧的火灾），再到在火灾演变成灾难性后果之前，留给诊断和处理的时间是多么有限。

资深美国海军潜艇兵埃里克·莫雷诺（Eric Moreno）运营着热门的 Reddit 页面 R/Submarines 和 Tac Ops 播客，他也向《战区》分享了他对潜艇上火灾的威胁性的见解。

每艘潜艇处理伤亡的方式都不同。这源于它们因任务需求而进行的不同设计。例如，海洋之门（Ocean Gate）的泰坦号（Titan）科研潜艇处理伤亡的方式与洛沙里克号（Losharik）这样的军用科研潜艇截然不同。这是由于潜艇的设计、人员配备、可用技术和训练等方面的差异造成的。所有潜艇（乃至所有舰艇）的共同之处在于，它们都采用相同的程序来处理每起伤亡事故。下图是卡瓦拉号（USS Cavalla，SS-244）潜艇上的“现场程序”（PIP）——一本记录每起伤亡事故处理程序的金属手册。

每艘潜艇处理伤亡的方式都不同。这源于它们因任务需求而进行的不同设计。例如，海洋之门（Ocean Gate）的科研潜艇“泰坦”（Titan）处理伤亡的方式与像“洛沙里克”（Losharik）这样的军用科研潜艇截然不同。这主要是由于潜艇的设计、人员配备、可用技术和训练水平的差异造成的。

所有潜艇（或者说所有舰船）都有一点是相同的，那就是处理各种事故的程序。下图是“卡瓦拉”号潜艇（SS-244）上的“现场处理程序”（PIP）手册。这是一本金属手册，记录了每种事故的处理程序。

卡瓦拉号航空母舰上的PIP照片。照片由埃里克·莫雷诺提供。

抓起火箭助推器冲出鱼雷舱，把它扔到甲板上，这只是我们习以为常的众多疯狂举动之一。潜艇兵几乎每天都要进行多次演习，以确保他们能够应对任何紧急情况。核潜艇上最常见的三种事故演习是火灾、进水和随机反应堆事故。美国海军对这三种事故都格外重视。即使美国潜艇停泊在港口，潜艇兵也会进行火灾和进水事故的演习。美国海军潜艇部队的所有潜艇兵都会在“消防训练器”和“湿式训练器”中进行训练。这为潜艇兵提供了一个最精确、最可控的环境，让他们能够模拟在航行中无法模拟的情况。历史上，潜艇火灾一直是潜艇上最常见的事故。因此，应对最大威胁的训练是重中之重。

抓起火箭助推器冲出鱼雷舱，把它扔到水面上，这只是我们习以为常的众多疯狂举动之一。潜艇兵几乎每天都要进行多次演习，以确保他们能够应对任何紧急情况。

核潜艇上最常见的三种事故演习是火灾演习、进水演习和随机反应堆事故演习。美国海军对这三种演习都给予了特别重视。即使美国潜艇停泊在港口，艇员们也会进行火灾和进水事故演习。美国海军潜艇部队的所有艇员都会在“消防训练器”和“湿式训练器”中进行训练。这为艇员们提供了一个最精确、最可控的环境，让他们能够模拟在航行中无法模拟的情况。

历史上，潜艇火灾一直是造成事故的最常见原因。因此，应对最大威胁的训练才是重中之重。

那么，什么会引发火灾呢？烟灰缸/烟灰缸里燃烧的香烟可能是导致火灾被紧急召回的最常见原因。装满的烟灰缸很容易引发不小的火势。香烟是大多数潜艇上唯一允许使用的明火。美国海军于2011年1月1日禁止在潜艇上使用香烟。电气火灾是第二常见的潜艇火灾。这类火灾可能难以控制，需要专业知识才能确保电力供应，否则火势会不断复燃。潜艇上的火灾非常特殊，不能像普通房屋火灾那样处理。房屋火灾中，热量和烟雾可以通过某种途径散发出去，最终消散到大气中。但在潜艇上，无论是人员还是热量和烟雾，都没有逃生的途径。热量和烟雾会迅速上升并聚集在最高处。像核动力攻击潜艇（SSN）、核动力弹道导弹潜艇（SSBN）甚至一些柴电潜艇（SSK）这样的军用潜艇都有多层结构，这使得热量和烟雾能够更好地散发出去。空间越大，能“吸收”火势的空气就越多，这给了船员更多的时间做出正确反应。上面提到的“PIP”（程序指示牌）需要时间来取出、读取和执行。潜艇越小，内部空气就越稀薄，反应时间就越短。像“洛沙里克”号这样的单层潜艇，会将热量和烟雾横向吹向全体船员。由于船员佩戴紧急呼吸面罩的时间非常有限，单层潜艇更容易发生吸入烟雾的情况。紧急呼吸面罩虽然容易获得，但仍然需要时间才能正确佩戴并密封。船员们成功扑灭了这场火灾，使潜艇浮出水面（或与母舰对接），并被拖回北莫尔斯克港，没有发生其他意外，这充分证明了幸存者的英勇无畏。

那么，什么会引发火灾呢？烟灰缸/烟灰缸里燃烧的香烟是导致火灾被紧急召回的最常见原因。装满的烟灰缸很容易引发不小的火势。香烟是大多数潜艇上唯一允许使用的明火。美国海军于2011年1月1日禁止在潜艇上使用香烟。电气火灾是第二大常见的潜艇火灾。这类火灾可能难以控制，需要专业知识才能确保电力供应，否则火势会不断复燃。

潜艇上的火灾很特殊，不能像普通房屋火灾那样处理。房屋火灾时，热量和烟雾有办法散失到大气中。但在潜艇上，无论是人员还是热量和烟雾，都没有逃生途径。热量和烟雾会立即上升，聚集在潜艇的最高处。

像核动力攻击潜艇（SSN）、核动力弹道导弹潜艇（SSBN）甚至一些柴电潜艇（SSK）这样的军用潜艇都设有多层舱室。这有助于热量和烟雾的消散。舱室空间越大，能够“吸收”火势的空气就越多，从而为艇员争取更多反应时间。上图所示的“程序指示”（PIP）需要时间来取出、读取和执行。潜艇越小，舱室空间就越小。舱室空间越小，艇员的反应时间就越短。

像“洛沙里克”号这样的单层潜艇会将热量和烟雾侧向吹向全体艇员。由于艇员佩戴紧急呼吸面罩的时间非常有限，单层潜艇上的吸入烟雾事故更为常见。虽然紧急呼吸面罩很容易获得，但正确佩戴并密封仍然需要时间。

她的船员扑灭了这场大火，使船只浮出水面（或与母船对接），并被拖回北莫尔斯克而没有发生其他意外，这充分证明了幸存者的英勇。

洛沙里克号是一艘非常独特的深潜特种任务潜艇。它的名字来源于其奇特的内部设计，这种设计从外部完全看不出来。莫雷诺说道：

洛沙里克（Losharik）的名字来源于俄罗斯马戏团里一种由马戏演员用球体神奇地制作出来的定格动画动物……真的。这指的是她内部的船体结构是由球体而非标准的圆柱体构成。这使得洛沙里克能够潜入极其深的海底。

俄罗斯方面称，火灾发生在“洛沙里克”号潜艇的电池舱内。人们只能想象其独特的“球形压力容器串联”设计会对火势产生怎样的影响，以及如何才能有效地扑灭这场火灾。但无论其设计如何，对于任何潜艇——这种在数百甚至数千英尺深的水下航行的舰艇——而言，最大的威胁竟然是火灾，这既讽刺又令人不寒而栗。

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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