Regional and national media earlier on Monday reported about heavy smoke coming from the anti-submarine destroyer “Admiral Chabanenko.”
The anti-submarine destroyer is one of the largest in the Northern fleet. The vessel normally has a crew of some 300, but it is not clear how many of them were onboard when the vessel was bundled in black smoke around noon on Monday. The vessel was then in the central harbor of Severomorsk, the Russian Northern fleet’s homeport north of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula.
TV-21 was the first to report about heavy smoke from the vessel. Reporters from the TV chanel say they could see heavy smoke visible in long distance from the vessel. Later on Monday, the same TV chanel qouted the head of the Northern fleet’s press-service, Vadim Serga, explaining that the smoke was coming from the chimney of a nearby vessel that started its main engine at the time.
The fire was extinguished around 13.00 local time, reports Murmanski Vestnik.
“Admiral Chabanenko” at port in Severomorsk. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
In May this year, “Admiral Chabanenko” and the Norwegian frigate “Fridtjof Nansen” participated in the joint military exercise Pomor-2012 in the waters of the Barents- and Norwegian Seas. A fire drill was one part of the exercise, as reported by BarentsObserver.
Crew members from “Admiral Chabanenko” then worked together with Norwegian naval crew members on how to evacuate injured people from a ship on fire and how to put off the fire. See BarentsObserver’s photo gallery from the drill under.
Four months ago, “Admiral Chabanenko” led a Russian naval flotilla from Severomorsk to the Syrian port of Tartus, as reported by BarentsObserver.
