Navy submarine crews take heat in fire drills
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Inside the submarine's engine room, a space defined by bulky electrical transformers and the curve of the boat's hull, an oil bilge fire sends six-foot flames licking up through the grated deck.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Two sailors who have come through a nearby hatch grab fire extinguishers and quickly put the fire out.
Ian Maloney, right, trains at the fire and flood simulator on Ford Island, with help from instructor Jay Ines. Maloney, 20, is a machinist mate 3rd class on the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Chicago.
"Fire, fire in the engine room," says a voice over a loudspeaker as a Klaxon horn sounds an alert.
This is basic firefighting in the Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific, a fire and flood simulator on Ford Island, and for this exercise, there's not even any smoke.
The real thing, of course, can be much, much worse.
Even a rubbish-can fire can put a close-quarters submarine in a thick, choking fog.
"The heat has nowhere to escape and the smoke has nowhere to escape," said Lt. Dennis Klein, the Ford Island school director for the training center.
In a recent real-life case, the crew of the Navy research submarine Dolphin fought a fire for three hours on May 22 in heavy seas 100 miles from San Diego before the order was given to abandon ship.
Pacific Fleet sub force spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Kelly Merrell credits the firefighting efforts of the 41-member crew — which was rescued by boat and helicopter — with saving the 165-foot sub.
"The quick response of the crew basically placed the sub in a stable condition to prevent it being a casualty, and that allowed it to be towed back to San Diego," Merrell said.
U.S. and Russian naval experts have estimated that since 1961, more than 500 submariners have died in accidents — most the result of fires.
In the Dolphin's case, seawater may have come through one of the top hatches and caused an electrical short as the sub was on the surface in 10-foot seas.
The San Diego-based Pacific Fleet vessel, commissioned in 1968 and the Navy's oldest and only diesel submarine, was taking part in research involving torpedoes.
The sub trainer on Ford Island, called NAVSUBTRACENPAC in Navy shorthand, was built 10 years ago for $1.5 million, and provides hands-on training for the type of accident that happened on the Dolphin.
Basic, advanced and team firefighting training is accomplished in the 48-foot wide, 31-foot long, 9.5-foot tall simulator.
The Navy runs between 130 and 150 courses a year through the trainer with an average of 10 sailors per course.
Three types of damage control training also are provided in a separate simulator that can jet 1,200 gallons of water per minute through pinhole- to golf ball-sized holes.
"When you say pinhole, you have to see it in action, because when you are at 200 feet a pinhole is actually quite a lot of water," Klein said.
With a 2-inch by 2-inch hole, meanwhile, "the water just gushes out of there in a stream that's solid," Klein said.
The fix for a pinhole leak seems uncharacteristically low-tech for a high-tech sub: a piece of rubber and some twine.
In the firefighting simulator, sailors face fires in electrical panels or hull insulation, oil bilge flare-ups, or flaming hydraulic fluid spitting from a flange leak.
Navy officials say most sub fires are electrical fires caused by short-circuits.
Computer-driven by an operator in an adjoining room, the simulation can include several propane-based fires at once and smoke produced by a nontoxic mixture of vegetable oil and nitrogen.
For the more involved scenarios, sailors wear breathing apparatus similar to that used by firefighters.
On this morning, early in the training, pairs of sailors are tackling oil bilge fires without having to cope with smoke. Four instructors in yellow jump suits supervise the trainees, and two are like shadows, watching the sailors' every move.
"This is a basic course, so today is the first day some of these guys have seen a fire (on a sub)," said Machinist Mate Chief Patrick Sullivan. "It should go hand in hand (with on-board training). They go to school like this and then go to their boat and continue the training."
Said Klein: "We can only do so much in here and the boat can only do so much."
What they can't do on a sub is have the simulated fires and the heat they produce.
"The most realistic scenario is this, but the one they would have to do in real life is on the boat," Klein said, "and there's a lot more coordination and teamwork involved with that. Every single person has to know what to do if they are going to go to subs because it really takes 120 people to fight a fire, and that's the whole sub."
Ian Maloney, 20, a machinist mate 3rd class on the Los Angeles-class attack sub USS Chicago, said, "I'd rather learn (firefighting) techniques off the boat so I can respond to a casualty faster and better on the boat."
Maloney, who has been on the Chicago for about three months, said the environment is different on a sub.
Being underwater in a moving sub is a little hard at first, "but when you get into the swing of things, it's a nice job," he said.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
