The nuclear power cargo ice breaker had a fire recently (Picture: East2West News)
A mystery fire broke out on Russia’s only nuclear-powered cargo ship in the Arctic – triggering panic onboard.
A blaze on the Sevmorput broke out as the vessel was berthed at a high-security dock, with no injuries reported.
One local posted: ‘I saw several fire units rushing there, and an ambulance.’
Another message read: ‘Shall we leave now? Is there anything from the authorities? Why no update? It would be too late to run given what kind of ship this is.’
Russia gave only limited information about the fire, claiming later it had been extinguished after breaking out in a 322-square-foot area.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry did not explain the cause of the fire, but said: ‘There were no injuries in the incident.’
Locals posted panicked messages about the blaze (Picture: East2West News)
Atomflot – a Russian state enterprise maintaining the world’s only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers – denied the vessel’s nuclear reactor has been impacted.
The 1988-built ship had arrived in its home port Murmansk after completing a crossing of the ice-clogged Northern Sea Route from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to St Petersburg.
Two months ago, Russia was forced to deny that nuclear-powered container ship Sevmorput sabotaged a key undersea gas pipeline connecting two NATO states.
A ‘seismic event’ on 8 October led to a rupture in the pipeline in the Gulf of Finland, while damage was also recorded on an undersea communications link.
A Chinese container ship – the Newnew Polar Bear – was also under investigation.
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