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French submarine burns in ‘unbelievably fierce fire' for 14 hours
[DefenseNews] One of France’s six Rubis-class nuclear-powered submarines, the Perle, burned for more than 14 hours "in an unbelievably fierce fire" June 12 in dry dock while undergoing major renovations by Naval Group, which were due to end in February 2021."There was absolutely no nuclear fuel aboard and not a single weapon. In fact the submarine was stripped bare," French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly added June 13 during a trip to the French naval base of Toulon on the Mediterranean coast to see the damage. "This was a fire, it was not a nuclear accident," she added. The fire broke out at 10:35 a.m. local time at the front of the sub, which was in basin No. 3 in the Missiessy zone of the port. Workmen first noticed smoke on the lower deck. Sources quoted by French daily Le Monde say the fire seems to have taken in a similar way to that of the Notre Dame Cathedral, with soldering work undertaken a few days before, which may have set something smoldering. The bits of wood and oil inherent to this type of renovation work could have fed the fire. The Perle has been operational since July 7, 1993, and the ongoing renovations were designed to prolong its life until 2030. It will take at least a month of investigations to understand whether the steel hull is so damaged as to make the sub unusable, according to Naval Group officials. The steel can withstand the intense heat of a fire for a certain number of hours, but engineers will have to check whether it has maintained the elasticity required to withstand wide variations in pressure when underwater. Related: Toulon: 2020-04-16 Coronavirus: 668 infected on French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle Toulon: 2020-04-14 French Carrier Heading Home Early Amid Suspicion of COVID-19 Outbreak Toulon: 2020-01-14 Muslim man convicted of hate crime in France for assaulting Jewish optician Related: Perle: 2017-02-01 Three terror suspects with links to 'Islamic State' arrested in Berlin Perle: 2012-07-17 JINSA: Israel is winner of Arab Spring Perle: 2011-05-19 VDH Summary of OB's Middle East Speech Posted by: Phusorong Platypus6384 2020-06-18 |
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