USS Miami ( SSN - 755 ) USS " Miami " ( SSN - 755 ) is a United States Navy . She was the third vessel of the U . S . Navy to be named after Miami , Florida . The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton , Connecticut , on 28 November 1983 and her keel was laid down on 24 October 1986 . She was launched on 12 November 1988 and commissioned on 30 June 1990 with Commander Thomas W . Mader in command . On 1 March 2012 " Miami " pulled into the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine for a scheduled 20 - month Engineered Overhaul ( EOH ) and system upgrades . A civilian employee started a fire aboard the boat on 23 May 2012 . It impacted the forward compartment of the submarine which includes crew living , command and control spaces and torpedo room . The revised estimate to restore the USS " Miami " increased to approximately $ 450 million with completion estimated on 30 April 2015 . Due to budget cuts , it was announced August 6 , 2013 , that the vessel would not be repaired and placed on the inactive list . History . 2012 fire . At 5 : 41 p . m . EDT on 23 May 2012 , fire crews were called with a report of a fire on the USS " Miami " while being overhauled at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine . At the time the submarine was on a scheduled 20 - month maintenance cycle , indicating the submarine was undergoing an extensive overhaul called " The Engineered Overhaul " . Injuries to seven firefighters had been reported by national media . One crewmember suffered broken ribs when he fell through a hole left by removed deck plates during the fire . It took firefighters 12 hours to extinguish the fire . Originally the U . S . Navy reported that the fire started when an industrial vacuum cleaner , used " to clean worksites on the sub after shipyard workers ’ shifts , " sucked up a heat source that ignited debris inside the vacuum . On July 23 , 2012 ; Casey J . Fury , a civilian painter and sandblaster working on the sub , was indicted on two counts of arson after confessing to starting the fire . Fury admitted to setting the May 23 fire by igniting some rags on the top bunk of a bunk room . He claimed to have started the fire to get out of work early On March 15 , 2013 ; Fury was sentenced to over 17 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $ 400 million in restitution . The U . S . Navy debated on whether to scrap the boat . Both of Maine ' s Senators , Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe , advocated repairing her . The U . S . Navy asked Congress to add $ 220 million to the operations and maintenance budget for emergent and unfunded ship repairs which would be used to help repair the Miami . The final outcome was a choice to repair the submarine at an estimated total cost of $ 450 million . The USS " Miami " was expected to return to service sometime in 2015 . However , congressional inaction to fully resolve the United States fiscal cliff had put this in doubt . To keep costs down , spare parts from the recently decommissioned were to be used to repair " Miami " . Furthermore , integrity checks on the hull did not show changes to its metallurgy or strength ; fixing the internal sections would be much cheaper than replacing hull sections . At first glance , it seemed more prudent to repair the USS " Miami " in the same manner as the since such a repair would cost " only " ( around ) 80 million USD . However , it should be noted that the hull of the USS " Memphis " was already 26 years old ( as of 2012 ) . " Memphis " is also a different version ( or " flight " ) of 688 submarine , as it was not built with the vertical launch system that the newer " Miami " has , thus making the Memphis ' hull incompatible with that of " Miami " . On 6 August 2013 , the U . S . Navy announced it will scrap the USS " Miami " , concluding the cost of repairs is more than it can afford in a time of budget cuts . A “ comprehensive damage assessment ” found that while the " Miami " could have theoretically been repaired , the necessary repairs were more extensive than first anticipated . This raised the expected repair costs from $ 450 million to $ 700 million . At that cost , repairing the " Miami " would have required cancellation of work on dozens of other surface ships and submarines . In the end , the Navy determined that repairing the " Miami " was not considered worth weakening overall fleet readiness . One factor in the heightened cost estimate was the effect of “ environmentally - assisted cracking ” in the steel piping and fasteners used in the air , hydraulic , and cooling water systems , which required more equipment to be replaced than previously thought . The U . S . Navy will lose five deployments " Miami " was to make over the ten years that remained in its service life , but funds will be used to support other vital maintenance efforts to improve the wholeness and readiness of the fleet . The USS " Miami " is the first submarine and nuclear - powered ship to be lost in a U . S . naval shipyard , and the second warship lost in a U . S . naval shipyard after the destruction of USS Merrimack ( Later renamed CSS Virginia upon raising ) on April 20 , 1861 in Norfolk Naval Shipyard during the American Civil War .