As Divers Find Sixth Body, Mumbai Firefighters Recall a Burning Waterfront

Vikapl Shah/APTV, via Associated Press A view of the night sky lit up as a result of a fire burning aboard the submarine INS Sindhurakshak in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Wednesday.

MUMBAIâ€" A little after midnight Tuesday, a loud explosion woke Dharmendra Kumar Jaiswal, the manager of a public toilet across the street from Mumbai’s navy yard.

“When I woke up and came out, I saw that the sky was lit up bright red with a huge fire that seemed to be coming from the navy area,” said Mr. Jaiswal. “I thought that since this is a defense area, it might be something to do with that. Then suddenly there were a lot of sirens and many cars were going into the dockyard, and I thought perhaps everything is not all right.”

Not far away, the deputy chief fire officer of Mumbai, P.S. Rahangdale, was on his way home from meeting some friends at Radio Club on his night off duty when he heard a loud blast and saw a fireball on the horizon. “At the time, I could not tell the exact location of the fire, but it seemed to be coming from the behind the Gateway of India in the navy area,” said Mr. Ranhangdale, who was the first person to spot the fire and alert the authorities.

Mr. Rahangdale did not know it then, but the explosion he witnessed was the diesel-powered, armed submarine INS Sindhurakshak on fire, at the beginning of what was to become one of the biggest naval disasters in recent Indian history. He immediately alerted the fire brigade control room and, judging the intensity of the fire from a distance, asked it to send eight fire engines. He also requested that his superiors allow him to resume duty, and he quickly arrived at the scene. What ensued was an arduous and challenging night of firefighting.

“The naval fire station had realized that the severity of the fire was too great for them to handle on their own,” said Tushar Barahate, assistant station officer at the Colaba fire station, who was among the crew on the site on Tuesday night. “The control room knew the severity of the fire and called all the nearby fire stations - Colaba, Nariman Point, Fort, Indira Dock, etc.”

When the firefighters arrived at the scene about 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, they saw that the Sindhurakshak, parked on the jetty, was engulfed in flames and that another submarine docked a few meters away, the Sindhuratna, had also caught fire. “Once I saw the magnitude of the fire when we got there, I asked for the number of fire engines to be increased from 8 to 16,” said Mr. Rahangdale. In addition to the fire engines, about 10 water tankers were called upon.

The fires in the submarines were brought under control in simultaneous operations, with about four jets of water directed at each, said Mr. Rahangdale. “Because the second submarine was docked close by, there was difficulty accessing the fire, and we were afraid of the danger of another explosion,” said Mr. Barahate. He added that because the fire on the second submarine was external, it was doused quite easily, while the fire in the Sindhurakshak was emanating from within and hard to extinguish. Within an hour, the fire on the Sindhuratna had been put out, and officials from the navy towed the submarine away from the Sindhurakshak with the help of other boats. The Sindhurakshak was ablaze for about three and a half hours, after which water seeped into the submarine because of damage sustained on the hull and it began to sink in the shallow waters of low tide.

Fire brigade officials recalled a previous accident at Mumbai’s navy yard, when the INS Vindhyagiri caught fire in 2011. The warship was hit by a merchant vessel while entering the harbor in 2011, resulting in a massive fire that took over 15 hours to douse. A day later, the ship sank because of water entering its chambers.

The challenges involved in fighting a fire of this magnitude in severe conditions on board the Sindhurakshak were considerable. “The navy had informed us that there was a lot of ammunition on board and there were high chances of another explosion,” said Mr. Rahangdale. “We had to be strategic in our approach or else there was a danger to our lives.” He added that because the explosion occurred during low tide, the supply of water available to the firefighters was limited.

“We came to know there were some sailors trapped inside, we did not know exactly how many, but penetration within the submarine was impossible,” he added. “The fire had swallowed up the whole submarine, there was heated steam rising, it was cooking inside, and there were very few access points.” However, he added that the fire was eventually overcome because of excellent coordination between the navy, the Bombay Port Trust fire brigade and the Mumbai fire brigade.

Nearly a week later, as navy divers continue to salvage the wreckage and more bodies are recovered, it has become a long wait for the families of the 18 sailors trapped on the submarine. Their relatives have been contacted and are being provided with regular updates by the Indian Navy’s family support cell, headed by a two-star flag officer and members of the Navy Wives Welfare Association.

Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency Navy security personnel departing the Naval dockyard in a truck in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Wednesday.

A naval officer not authorized to speak to the news media said that three men who were near the submarine at the time of the explosion sustained minor injuries and were being treated at the naval hospital, INHS Asvini. “They are in a state of shock and recovering from the trauma,” he said.

Over two dozen television cameras are lined up across the street from the Lions Gate entrance of the navy yard as journalists await  updates on the rescue operation. A chai stall set up under a banyan tree across the street from the gate is doing brisk business as local news reporters gather around, chatting and waiting for news.

By Saturday, divers had recovered the bodies of five crew members. On Saturday evening, they located and brought up a sixth body despite low visibility and mangled metal, according to a statement issued by the navy. “Samples from the bodies of six crew members have been sent to Central Forensic Laboratory (CFL), Kalina for DNA finger printing,” the statement said. “Samples have also been obtained from blood relatives of personnel and forwarded to CFL.”

The cause of the explosion in the Russian-built submarine has yet to be determined. Russian naval engineering specialists will be joining Indian investigators in finding out the reason, Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister of Russia, told the Russian press. Mr. Rogozin added that the explosion had occurred in the compartment of the submarine where the batteries were charged and contended that a lack of technical safety measures seemed to be the reason for the blast.