The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disasters

It was at about this time, as the five cosmonauts in base block were scrambling for their oxygen masks, that the station’s fire alarm – a loud, piercing buzzer – finally went off. According to Kaleri, the nearest sensor to the fire was located near the node; the alarm did not go off until the first wisps of smoke crossed the length of base block and approached the node. The alarm triggered an automatic shutdown of the station’s thundering ventilation system; this was intended to prevent the system from blowing smoke into the other modules. In the event, it was only partially successful. Smoke was soon pouring into base block.

The alarm jarred Linenger down in Spektr, where he had already strapped himself to the wall in anticipation of sleep. He was midway through another letter to his son, John, when the alarm went off. In a flash he untangled his legs from the bungee cords securing him to the wall, flew down the length of Spektr and into the node, where he ran headlong into Tsibliyev and Ewald, who confirmed that there was, in fact, a fire in Kvant.

“Is it serious?” Linenger asked in Russian.

“Seryozny!” someone answered. “It’s serious! It’s serious!”

Crawling through the node, Ewald sliced away from Linenger into Kristall, where there was a container of oxygen masks he was familiar with. The Russian oxygen mask worked on the same principle as the SFOG, using a chemical reaction to create a flow of oxygen across the wearer’s mouth. Ewald pulled the ring atop a circular container and lifted out the topmost mask, then strapped the mask across his face. It covered his mouth, nose, and eyes, protecting him from smoke inhalation. Attached to the bottom of the mask was an oxygen bottle. Flipping a switch on the container released a breath or two of oxygen. To activate the full flow of oxygen, Ewald took several quick breaths; the humidity from his breath was supposed to activate the oxygen flow. But as Ewald panted into the mask, he realized nothing was happening. There was no air flow. The mask, like the “candle” spouting fire back in Kvant, should have felt warm if the proper reaction had occurred. Ewald’s mask stayed cold.

Without thinking, he grabbed for a second mask. “At a time like this, you don’t argue with the device,” Ewald recalled months later. The second mask worked. In seconds he felt a warm flow of oxygen across his mouth and nose. He turned and flew back into base block, where he was immediately met by an ominous sight. Thick black smoke was quickly filling the module. It had already shrouded the table where he was sitting moments before. Through the gathering murk he could just make out Korzun fighting the fire in Kvant.

Of the fire itself, all he could see through the smoke was a yellow glow.

Linenger too experienced problems with his oxygen mask. It fitted onto his head but wouldn’t fill up with oxygen. Smoke was already entering the node as Linenger fiddled with his mask, trying to make it work. He held his breath for several long moments, then grabbed for a second mask, flinging the other aside. Tsibliyev, who had easily donned his own mask, watched as he took several quick breaths and, to his relief found the second mask worked as planned.

Leaving the node, Tsibliyev took Linenger into Priroda to fetch the fire extinguishers there. Linenger grabbed for one but was startled to find it was secured to the wall.

“It won’t come off,” he said to Tsibliyev, who had found the second extinguisher would not come loose either. Both men gave the extinguishers a quick tug. Nothing.

Months later, NASA officials analyzing the fire would be deeply disturbed by this incident. The problem of immovable fire extinguishers in Priroda was even raised in a congressional hearing by the NASA inspector general as evidence that Mir was unsafe. In fact, according to Korzun, the problem was a simple but dangerous oversight. When Priroda was blasted into space and delivered to dock with Mir in 1996, its fire extinguishers were secured by transport straps. For some reason, none of the crews who worked aboard Mir in the intervening nineteen months ever released the straps.

This oversight effectively disabled the two extinguishers Tsibliyev and Linenger had their hands on.

Tsibliyev remembered: Jerry wanted to talk, to ask me about it, he was saying, “What? How?” I said, “We don’t have time to discuss it. Drop it. Let’s go to Kvant 2 and get ’em there.”

Shooting quickly back through the node into Kvant 2, Tsibliyev grabbed one of the two fire extinguishers there and handed it to Linenger.

“Give it to Korzun,” he said.