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TRIDENT, NOVEMBER 1, 2004 3A fire at sea is always seriousBy RAdm D. McNeilCommanderMaritime Forces AtlanticOver the past few weeks therehave been media broadcastsand articles that have alleged thatthe Navy tried to downplay theseriousness of the fire on boardCHICOUTIMI. This is a false impressioncreated by one specific broadcastnetwork. From the momentthis Headquarters received the initialcall from the submarine, thisevent was treated as an extremelyserious situation. Our public affairsresponse was also quick, measuredand responsible.When Commander Truscott, theperson who took the call, heard thewords, no propulsion, no power,casualties and fire; there was nodoubt in his mind that the submarinerequired immediate assistance. Dueto the bad connection on the line, hewas getting approximately 60 percent of the conversation; he did haveto ask Lt(N) Bryan to repeat someinformation such as the boat’s longitudeand latitude but at no time didhe perceive this as anything but avery serious matter.Less than 10 minutes later, theMaritime Operations Centre, theJoint Rescue Coordination Centre(JRCC), Maritime Operations Group5, as well as CTF 311 (the Submarinegroup in the UK) had all beeninformed of the situation. MRCClyde, the JRCC counterpart in theUK immediately began to conduct asearch and rescue mission.From then on, all available assetsboth here and on the other side ofthe Atlantic, were put forth toensure three things, the rescue ofCHICOUTIMI’s crew, the timely andaccurate passage of information tofamily members and the safe returnof the boat to Faslane.Some of you may be asking wherethe media’s perception of the Navydownplaying the situation is comingfrom. The first media broadcast thatwe are aware of, that characterizedthe fire as minor, came out at approximately1 p.m. on October 5, andquoted a Royal Air Force spokespersonin Kinla, Scotland as saying:“We had a call from CHICOUTIMIover an hour ago. There was a smallfire onboard and reports of three peoplesuffering from smoke inhalation.”Shortly after this, and prior to ourmedia briefing, a member of MAR-LANT’s public affairs team repeatedthe information received from Kinlato one media outlet. This was theonly time that the Navy used theword small and less than 30 minuteslater, at the press briefing the Navyclearly indicated that this incidentwas serious.The following transcripts datedOctober 5th, 6th and 7th are providedto help clarify the situation. As thebriefing was not carried live from theonset on the 5th, the very beginningof the statement is missing. The areasin bold black are those of interest.The italic comments are mine.A number of questions andanswers that were not related to theissue being discussed here have beenomitted from the transcripts in orderto make the article a reasonablelength. The complete transcripts canbe read on the DGPA Intranet site.Day onepress briefing transcript5 Oct 2004 14h43Cmdre. Pile: And a tow vessel,and they are approximately 12 to 14hours back. Our British long-rangepatrol aircraft is currently on taskflying over the area. A search-andrescuehelicopter is also standing byto provide assistance if required andalso to assist with communications.As I mentioned earlier, the boat iswithout power and has only limitedmeans of communicating at thistime. Our operations staff havebeen in contact with the boat.Weather in the area is currently creatingsome discomfort for thecrews. Winds are greater than 30knots and the seas are approximatelysix metres in height. The goodnews is that a high-pressure systemis moving towards this area over thenext 36 hours, and the winds andseas are forecast to abate overnight.Over the past two hours, we haveattempted to contact all familymembers of HMCS CHICOUTIMI.We will continue this process untileveryone has been notified.Question: (Inaudible).Answer: We don’t know anydetails of the fire except that itoccurred on an electrical panel onboard, and that’s all we have atthe moment.Question: Also I should ask thequestion do you know if any areas ofthe sub were sealed as a result of thefire to fight the fire?Answer: I don’t have any ofthose details.Question: What kind of contactdo you have at this time with thesubmarine?Answer: Well, only the second incommand, only with the second incommand by telephone.Question: This isn’t the first timewe’ve had briefings on, you know,near disasters I suppose on the submarines,leaks, uncontrolled flooding,now a fire. What can you sayabout that? We keep having problemsand you keep having theseproblems with the submarine, whyis that?Answer: Ships and submarines ofany Navy in any country are complexentities. We’ve had fires in the past,and we will continue to deal withfires and other incidents in the future.This is just one of those incidents.Question: Can you give us anindication of the size of the fire? Idon’t know if you characterised itas small, minor, characterise it ifyou can in terms of how big thefire was, did it spread and escalate,how long did it take to get thefire out?Answer: I don’t have any ofthose specific details but the firewas sufficiently large enough tocause smoke inhalation issues forsome of the crew.Question: Was the issue of the distresscall because the vessel resultedin the loss of power?Answer: The primary reason forthe distress call is the sub is on thesurface without propulsion andwithout propulsion she has to havesome means to get back and get therepairs effected on board.Question: I have sort of two specificquestions. In terms of the panel,the electric panel, where was thefire as specific as you can be? Wherewas the panel, in the electrical room?Where was it on the sub?Answer: There are a number ofpassageways in the submarine. Itwas in one of those passageways.Question: I saw pictures on thewebsite today of submarinemariner... Does this cause anyone tore-evaluate the acquisition of thissubmarine?Interview: Well, it’s obviously asetback for the program as far asCHICOUTIMI concerned with herarrival now delayed by this incident,but in terms of the overall program,we’ll find out what the problem wason board the submarine. We’ll get itfixed and we’ll move on forwardfrom there.Question: Have you ever had a fireon these submarines before?Answer: Not to my knowledge.Randy? No. Not these submarines,no.Question: How common oruncommon occurrence is a fire ona submarine?Answer: As I mentioned earlier,like any ship or submarine, these arecomplex entities, warships in general,and although fires and floods andincidents of that nature are a rareoccurrence they do happen and theywill continue to happen.Question: Who is the Commander?Interview: The Commander isCommander Luc Pelletier.Question: Could you speak a bitabout — you mentioned the fire aresometimes issues that happen.Could you speak about what itwould be like to be on board a submarinein the event of a fire, whatwould one see? I assume it would bequite a terrifying thing. Could youspeak to that issue?Interview: Throughout myentire career in the Navy, one ofthe things taught to every sailor,submariners alike, is one of themost dangerous things at sea is tohave a fire on board. That is whywe spend so much of our time conductingtraining for damage controlto deal with situations just likethis, and as can you see the fire wasput out.Day twopress briefing transcript6 Oct 2004 11h00Cmdre Tyrone Pile: Before Ibegin today, I just wanted to telleveryone here that I just momentsago got off the phone with the primeminister who wanted to express hisconcern over the situation withHMCS CHICOUTIMI and pass onhis personal best wishes to thecommanding officer, CommanderLuc Pelletier, the crew of HMCSCHICOUTIMI and of course thefamilies. We’re going to followpretty much the same routine as wedid yesterday. I’m going to pass onsome prepared information to youand after that there’ll be timefor questions.I’m going to begin this morningby providing you with an update onCHICOUTIMI’s situation. As shownon the graphic, CHICOUTIMI is currently160 kilometres west of Ireland.She is still without propulsionand is experiencing a drift to thesouth-southeast at a rate of approximatelyone to two knots under thecurrent weather conditions.The Royal Navy frigate MON-TROSE with a Sea Lynx helicopterembarked arrived on the scene at8:30 this morning. All of the timesI use, by the way, will be local Halifaxtime to avoid any confusion.She is in communication withCHICOUTIMI and very recentlytransferred by boat her medicalofficer and a physician’s assistant toCHICOUTIMI. They are currentlyonboard and they are examining thenine crew members that are reportedthat were injured as a result ofsmoke inhalation yesterday. A secondRoyal Navy frigate, HMSMARLBOROUGH, is en route andwill arrive at 17:00 today. I shouldalso note that we are in direct communicationswith both of theseRoyal Navy vessels.The towing vessel Anglian Princeis also en route and is expected toarrive on scene at 14:00. Anothertow vessel, the Carolyn Chouest Ireported to you as being en routeyesterday. In fact, she did not get offthe wall because of the weather butshe is now underway and is expectedto arrive at 17:00 tomorrow. TheRoyal Fleet auxiliary vessel WAVEKNIGHT is also on scene. TheWAVE KNIGHT is a replenishmentship, has a medical team onboardand also carries an EH-101 helicopter.And also HMS ARGUS, anotherRoyal Navy ship, a small helicoptercarrier with a full fleet of helicoptersembarked will also be on scenetomorrow at 14:30. As I mentionedyesterday, a Royal Air Force Nimrodlong-range patrol aircraft hasbeen providing 24/7 coverage andalso relay communications betweenthe submarine and the Royal Navycommander of Task Force 311which is located in Northwood,England. Royal Navy Rear AdmiralPaul Lambert is the head of this taskforce and he is leading the RoyalNavy assistance efforts to HMCSCHICOUTIMI. We just receivedphotos of CHICOUTIMI this morningand showing some of thembehind me.These were taken by the Royal AirForce Nimrod and provide somesense of the sea conditions that wereexperienced by the boat at that time.Weather in the area has actuallyimproved slightly as the intense lowpressure that produced gale forcewinds yesterday and overnight continuesto move eastward past theBritish Isles. We anticipate that windand sea conditions will continue toabate with significantly improvedconditions expected by late Thursdayevening.The commanding officer ofHMCS CHICOUTIMI is currentlyassessing the extent of the damagecaused by the fire and is examiningoptions on how best to getCHICOUTIMI back to a port forrepairs.Information received overnightclearly indicates that the damagecaused by the fire was more extensivethan first thought. We still donot know where the fire startedbut it did cause significant damageto the commanding officer’s cabinand the electrical equipmentroom. These two spaces are locatedon two decks - the commandingofficer’s cabin on this deck and theelectrical equipment room on thesecond deck immediately below.This was a major fire and it causedsignificant damage to the electricalcabling which ran betweenthose two compartments circled inblue. The fire was of sufficientstrength that most of the submarine’sportable firefighting equipmentwas used to put it out.Shortly after this first fire,CHICOUTIMI also reported a secondminor fire in one of her oxygengenerators. An oxygen generatoris this piece of equipmentthat’s here on the table. The crewfollowed standard emergencyoperating procedures and this firewas quickly extinguished. Thegenerator essentially is ignited bya cartridge and it’s actually a 410-shotgun shell type cartridge whichis inside the generator. It’s ignited.This flashes up a candle inside thegenerator and burns the chemicalwhich produces the O2 required toprovide breathable atmosphereinside the submarine. While it isan irregular occurrence, this was aminor fire and something that hashappened in the submarines in thepast and therefore we have laid outstandard procedures on how todeal with that when it happens.It’s normally evident. Initiallyyou’ll see some smoke coming