INS Vikramaditya fire: Steam pipe blast caused fire on aircraft carrier

Bengaluru: The fire incident which claimed the life of Naval officer is suspected to have been caused due to blast in a steam pipe in the engine room of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.

It is gathered that Lieutenant Commander Dharmendra Singh Chauhan (30), who died dousing the flames, was hit by a jet of hot steam when he went into the smoke-filled room to fight the fire, which left him unconscious.

A fire broke out onboard INS Vikramaditya while entering the harbor in Karwar on Friday, April 26.

As per the statement issued by the Indian Navy, the officer lost consciousness due to the smoke and fumes during the firefighting efforts. He was immediately evacuated to the Naval Hospital at Karwar but could not be revived. However, the fire was brought under control by the ship’s crew in a swift action preventing any serious damage affecting the ship’s combat capability, added the Navy.

INS Vikramaditya is 284 metres long and 60 metres high — that’s about as high as a 20-storeyed building. The ship weighs 40,000 tonnes and is the biggest and heaviest ship in the Indian Navy.

The $2.3 billion aircraft carrier came to India from Russia in January 2014. INS Vikramaditya, which was commissioned into the Indian Navy in November 2013 at the Sevmash shipyard in north Russia’s Severodvinsk, is based at its home port at Karwar.