``I told them that we'd had a major fire. . . that we had lost propulsion and power,'' Lieut. Pete Bryan told the CBC.
``I gave an estimate as to the casualties I knew at that time, but as to the exact medical condition at that time, I just said we had three casualties that were suffering from smoke inhalation.''
Bryan, the executive officer on board the stricken sub, said in an interview from Glasgow, Scotland, that he can't understand the confusion about how bad the fire was Oct. 5.
He felt he was being heard in Halifax when he relayed the message and there was a concerned tone at the other end of the line, he said.
``I believed I was understood,'' he said.
Armed Forces officials had blamed bad communications with the sub for initial confusion over the extent of the fire. That didn't stop critics from accusing the federal government and military leaders of downplaying the incident, the latest in a series of embarrassing mishaps involving the second-hand subs purchased from Britain.
A total of nine sailors were injured in the fire. Lieut. Chris Saunders died of smoke inhalation while he and two others were being transferred to hospital from the Chicoutimi.
Leading Seaman Gary Taylor told the CBC that after the British ship HMS Montrose pulled alongside the stricken sub, the crew learned from photocopied news stories that the fire was being described as minor.
``The first thing we saw was `Minor fire cripples Chicoutimi','' Taylor said. ``We're looking around the compartment going, 'Well, if this is minor, hate to see major.' ''
The military is conducting an inquiry into the fire.
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