The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disasters

“Get the fire extinguishers!” he said.

Fire in a zero-gravity environment is not something human beings know much about. Both Linenger and Shannon Lucid, in fact, ran experiments in which they observed an open flame in a self-contained glovebox. It is gravity that causes a flame on Earth to flicker upward; in zero gravity, fire expands in all directions at the same speed, creating a flame that looks like a burning ball. The fire that erupted in front of Sasha Lazutkin looked nothing like a ball, however. Oxygen roaring out of the SFOG sent it shooting outward much as it would on Earth.

Everyone in base block was startled by Korzun’s sudden call for fire extinguishers. Hovering at the dinner table, his back to the fire, Sasha Kaleri turned to see it and immediately realized what was happening. To him the fire appeared a reddish shining in the air; he saw sparks cascading through the module around Lazutkin. Much like Lazutkin, he resisted a powerful impulse to leap into the module and attempt to smother the fire. Two people are already a crowd, he remembered thinking. When Korzun called out for a fire extinguisher, Kaleri had a small problem: the postcards and envelopes in his hands. As fast as he could, he jammed several into niches beneath the table and others into a nearby sack.

Sitting beside Kaleri, Tsibliyev, who served on the fire brigade at his Crimean grade school, didn’t need to be told to grab fire extinguishers. There were two attached to the walls in base block, and the moment Korzun soared into Kvant, Tsibliyev flew over and grabbed one. The other he reached just as Kaleri tore it from its holder. Kaleri took one of the fire extinguishers and passed it through the hatch to Lazutkin, who quickly passed it to Korzun.

“Sasha, quickly, leave the module!” Korzun barked. Lazutkin dipped his head and propelled himself through the airway into base block.

As Korzun turned back toward the fire, he saw glowing bits of molten metal and other flaming particles floating out toward him. The fire was growing larger every second, its outer edges flicking toward the far wall of the module. No one had to tell Korzun what would happen if the fire somehow burned through wall panels and pierced the hull: they would all die in minutes as the station’s atmosphere whistled through the hole.

Smoke began to sting his eyes. The fire extinguisher in his hands had two settings, one for foam, the other for water. Korzun switched on the foam, and as the smoke grew thicker and darker around him, he pointed the extinguisher at the flame.

Nothing.

Nothing was coming out of the extinguisher. “At first I thought neither foam nor water was coming out,” Korzun remembered. “I thought it was just gas. I couldn’t tell what was happening because it was so dark.”

Unsure whether the fire extinguisher was working, he dropped it. It floated off into the gathering murk. The smoke was growing thicker. He realized that he needed an oxygen mask. Turning, he ducked and propelled himself out of the module.

“Everyone to the oxygen masks!” Korzun shouted.

All five of the cosmonauts tumbled toward the far end of base block in a chaotic tangle of arms and legs. Russian curse words – “Shit! Damn!” – accompanied the flying scrum. Lazutkin, streaking past the others, was the first to reach a mask. He didn’t put it on, thinking he wouldn’t need it.

Korzun’s order to don oxygen masks took Kaleri by surprise. The flight engineer had assumed the fire was already under control. He lunged toward the far end of base block, followed by Korzun, who reached his mask in two or three seconds; later the commander did not remember retrieving or donning the mask.

“Where’s Jerry?” Korzun asked. Someone said he was in Spektr. “Bring him in here!” Korzun said, springing back toward Kvant. “We all need to be together. Okay. Now, everyone travel in pairs!” In laying out firefighting practices, the Russian trainers at Star City had emphasized how crucal it was to travel in pairs. On Earth, someone who faints or is overcome by smoke will keel over, presumably hitting the ground and prompting those nearby to rush to the rescue. In microgravity, an unconscious person will simply float in space, motionless; unless someone is hovering alongside, you may never know that individual is in trouble.

“Sasha!” Korzun shouted to Lazutkin. “Prepare the ship!”

Korzun’s order was for Lazutkin to prepare one of the two Soyuz escape craft for evacuation. Lazutkin immediately swam off toward the node, where the Soyuz that he, Tsibliyev, and Linenger would use to evacuate the station was docked. There is just one problem: the Soyuz reserved for Korzun, Kaleri, and Ewald was located at the end of Kvant, on the far side of the steadily growing blowtorch in the middle of the module. Simply put, there was no way to get to the Soyuz without putting out the fire. As Korzun recrossed the dinner table with a second fire extinguisher, he saw thick black smoke beginning to pour out of Kvant into base block.