Remains of Cold War-era Russian sub catches fire

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The remains of a Cold War-era Russian submarine once seen in a movie starring Harrison Ford caught fire in Providence on Tuesday morning as workers were using a blow torch to cut it up for scrap, fire officials said.

The fire at a waterfront scrap yard sent a plume of black smoke over the city at about 9:30 a.m. but was quickly extinguished. No one was hurt.

The hull is sheathed in a 3- to 4-inch layer of rubber and that’s what caught fire as workers cut into it with a torch, Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Steve Capracotta said.

After the Cold War, the submarine known as Juliett 484 was sold and used as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and as a set for the 2002 Ford movie “K-19: The Widowmaker.”

The sub wound up in Providence because the Rhode Island-based USS Saratoga Museum Foundation bought it and opened it to the public as a floating museum in 2002.

It sank during a nor’easter in 2007 and was sold for scrap.

State environmental officials have been informed of the fire, Capracotta said.

The Associated Press