Explosions in Russia

Russia blast: Multiple explosions rock arsenal storing ‘13mln’ shells, hundreds fight blaze

RT,

18 June, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZismREOuuk&feature=player_embedded Large explosions rock an ammunition depot in Russia’s Samara Region, where over 13 million shells are stored. Over 500 firefighters are combatting the blaze triggered by blasts, while dozens of residents in nearby communities have sought medical help.

Multiple artillery shells keep exploding at an ammunition depot near the city of Chapaevsk, a local police spokesman told RIA.

“It is still not possible to halt the self-destruction, or to enter the firing grounds,” he added, saying that the shell shards are scattering in such a large area that there is no way the fire brigade could reach and extinguish the fire. 

According to the Chief Directorate of the Interior Ministry for Samara Region spokesman Sergey Goldstein, there are “13 million shell units” at the ammunition depot, Interfax reports.

 

Police have cordoned off the area. At least 6,000 people from the nearby community have been evacuated to safety, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.

11 people have been hospitalized as a result of the blasts, a source in emergency response team told RIA.

Earlier reports said that 34 people have sought medical attention in connection with the incident in Chapaevsk, according to Russian Health Ministry spokesman Oleg Salagay.

Local authorities are warning the residents of Chapaevsk not to enter the area of the blasts, and have sealed off the roads leading to the arsenal. There are some 74,000 people living in Chapaevsk just 15 kilometers from the area of the incident. 

The Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies is sending two planes with robot-equipped bomb-disposal experts to Chapaevsk, reports Itar-Tass.

“Chapaevsk is covered by smoke. The shells are exploding at a military depot in Nagorny community. The federal highway has been blocked,” the city resident @andygoalkeeper posts on Twitter.

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‪#Чапаевск в дыму. Взрываются снаряды на военном складе в поселке ‪#Нагорный. Федеральная трасса перекрыта. ‪pic.twitter.com/tRULORPGPr

5:07 утра - 19 июня 2013

Andrey Anosov ‪@andygoalkeeper

‘Fire could last for 3 days’

More than 500 firefighters with 100 units of equipment are fighting the blaze at the site of the incident, Ministry of Emergencies said. Their numbers are building up, it added.

Meanwhile, officials say that the fire and the blasts could last for up to three days.

“The munitions, which are piled in stacks, keep exploding. According to experts’ estimates, the fire at the shooting ground could last for 2-3 days,” a law enforcement source told RIA.

Aleksey Kochkin of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade has confirmed that the blaze could endure for up to three days “in a worst case scenario,” citing similar emergencies.

Image from vk.com/typical_chapaevsk

Ammunition depot explosions are not a rare occurrence in the Russian Federation. Over the last three years, more than a dozen explosions have shocked the nation taking the lives of both civilians and military personnel.

The tragic highlights include July 2010 in the Altai region where 6 people died from explosions including 4 civilians. In April 2011, an explosion at a military warehouse claimed the lives of four civilians employed by the Defense Ministry. In the Russian Udmurt region, a blast in June 2011 killed 7 soldiers and wounded more than 100 people.

Last year alone ten incidents have lit up the skies. The most tragic ones include an explosion in May 2012 in which 6 people died and four were injured. The accident in the Nizhny Novgorod region was followed by an explosion, two weeks lateer in the Far East in which two people died. In September, while dismantling the ammunition, an explosion claimed the life of one soldier in the Orenburg region.