USS Miami Fire Damage Extent Not Clear Yet
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers have pumped fresh air into the fire-damaged sub, allowing Navy investigators to begin the first damage assessment
The fire aboard Miami damaged the torpedo room, crew quarters and command and control areas in the fore part of the submarine, but the nuclear propulsion components in the after part of the sub were not harmed.
Vice Adm. Kevin M. McCoy, commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command, told Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, that he’s hopeful that the ship can be repaired. He said that many vital components escaped damage because they had been removed for the 20-month overhaul and that salvage parts are available from previously decommissioned Los Angeles-class subs.
The intensity of the fire, the lack of lighting, the thick smoke and the metal hull that turned the submarine into an oven all contributed to a difficult blaze for firefighters to extinguish.