By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOVMOSCOW -- Some of the crew of a burning Russian nuclear submarine were still inside and seven others had been evacuated to hospitals after inhaling toxic fumes, officials said Friday.
The Defense Ministry said there has been no radiation leak from the fire, which began Thursday at an Arctic shipyard where the submarine Yekaterinburg was in drydock. Fire brigades are still struggling to put out the fire.
The military says the fire began on wooden scaffolding and then engulfed the submarine's rubber-coated outer hull. It said the sub's nuclear reactor had been shut down and its nuclear-tipped missiles and other weapons had been unloaded before the repairs.
An unspecified number of crew have remained inside the submarine, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. He said they have reported that the condition on board has remained normal and insisted there was no danger of fire spreading inside the submarine.
Konashenkov's statement left it unclear whether the crew were trapped there or ordered to stay inside.
Toxic fumes from the blaze had spread to the town of Roslyakovo where the shipyard is located, but officials said there was no need to evacuate local residents.
It would take a few more hours to fully extinguish the smoldering outer hull, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said. He said seven members of the submarine crew have been hospitalized after inhaling poisonous carbon monoxide fumes from the fire.
The Yekaterinburg is a Delta-IV-class nuclear-powered submarine that normally carries 16 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was built in 1984.
Most modern submarines' outer hulls are covered with rubber to make them less noisy and more difficult for an enemy to detect.
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