Russian emergency service: Fire reported on nuclear-powered vessel, quickly extinguished
A fire broke out on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker in the northern Russian port of Murmansk but was quickly extinguished by firefighters, the regional branch of Russia's emergency ministry said on Dec. 25.
The fire occurred in a cabin on the ship, named the Sevmorput, while docked at the port. The ministry initially reported that the fire spread to about 30 square meters, but firefighters managed to contain it before it spread further.
An update issued less than an hour later said that the fire had been extinguished, and there were no casualties.
"There was no threat to crucial support systems or to the reactor facility," Atomflot, the Russian state-owned company that deploys a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, told the Russian state-controlled news outlet RIA Novosti.
The Sevmorput, operated by Atomflot, is a nuclear-powered icebreaker and cargo ship, the only such vessel in Russia's fleet, according to the Russian state nuclear ministry, Rosatom. It was originally constructed in 1988 but has been since modernized.
It was not the first time there have been problems associated with the Sevmorput. The local Norwegian media outlet The Barents Observer reported in 2021 that the ship had stalled near the port of the Angolan capital, Luanda, for a month in 2020 due to a damaged propeller.
Kate Tsurkan
