Russia: Civilian rescued from deep submersible fire

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - A civilian was rescued from a fire that erupted in a Russian military submersible in the Barents Sea and killed 14 seamen, the country’s defense minister said on Wednesday.

On July 1, a fire broke out on a naval deep-sea research vessel, while the crew were taking biometric measurements in the Barents Sea. At least 14 servicemen reportedly died from inhaling toxic fumes from the fire. Seven of those killed were high-ranking military officers.

At a news conference, following the meeting with a special investigative commission, established to ascertain the circumstances of the incident, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said the seamen evacuated a civilian from the submersible module which caught the fire, and then dogged the hatch to prevent the fire from spreading.

"At the cost of their lives, they fulfilled a difficult task - they eliminated the fire, saved their comrades and the vessel. [...] All officers who died in the deep submersible will be presented with state awards," the minister said.

In a separate statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said some data about the incident would be kept classified as it relates to the state secret.

"The supreme commander [President Vladimir Putin] has all the information, but all this information cannot be made public, [it] belongs to the category of absolutely secret data," he said.

He said Putin was informed about the incident immediately after it happened.