Friday - June 03, 2011

Boomski Boomski

Explosions caused by a fire at a military ammunition depot in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan nearly a week ago have finally ceased, RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir and Russian services report.

The fire and explosions started at a military base northeast of the republic’s capital, Ufa, on May 26.

Some of those who had been among more than 7,000 local residents evacuated from the area last week started returning to the village of Urman in the Iglino district on June 1.

Those whose homes are situated close to the burning military facility are still unable to return home because the fire is still burning.

More than 116 people were made homeless by the incident, 12 were injured, and some 500 left unemployed after their businesses were destroyed by the fire and explosions.

Bashkortostan Security Council head Marat Magadeev told journalists that new homes will be built and finished by August for those who are homeless.

Firefighters were able to enter the base on the morning of June 1 after the explosions stopped. Magadeev told journalists that heavy rain is currently helping to extinguish the blaze.

Moscow - A Russian ammo dump caught fire for the second time in a week on Monday, with exploding munitions forcing a repeat evacuation of hundreds of people.

Firefighters were having difficulty approaching the artillery ammunition depot in Russia’s Central Asian Bashkorstan province because of shell explosions and flying metal, according to news reports.

More than 1,000 residents of the nearby village of Urman abandoned their homes aboard buses provided by local officials, the Interfax news agency reported.

It was not clear from early reports what caused the fire. The blaze came in the wake of a Thursday conflagration at the same storage site. Army investigators have blamed a soldier who allegedly

tossed live shell casings into a pile, which is believed to have touched off one of the shell detonators.

This week:

PUGACHYOVO, Russia—A fire at a military base in the Russian republic of Udmurtia is causing a series of strong explosions, forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of people, RFE/RL’s Russian and Tatar-Bashkir services report.

According to RFE/RL’s services, some 150 buildings—including 18 ammunition depots—are currently on fire at the military base near the village of Pugachyovo. The fire started around midnight on June 2.

Officials say that up to 10,000 train cars full of ammunition may be inside the base.

Udmurtia’s Health Ministry said 50 people have been injured in the incident thus far, 25 of whom have been hospitalized.
...
An estimated 28,000 people have been evacuated from Pugachyovo and nearby villages, including those living in the neighboring Republic of Tatarstan.
...
Explosions from within the ammunition depots can be heard regularly. Most of the buildings on fire are not yet fully destroyed but their roofs and windows are severely damaged.

Local authorities have blocked the highway that goes from Yelabuga to Perm. The radius of debris from the exploding ammunition is about two kilometers around the military base.

The incident at Pugachyovo is the second large-scale fire and resulting explosions at a Russian military base in the past week.

A total of 200 personnel, 30 fire fighting units and three fire fighting trains have been deployed, although it was early to move them to the still exploding depot, Vesti TV channel said. The Russian Emergencies Ministry has also rushed two Il-76 fire fighting aircrafts, each able to carry 42 metric tons of water [approx. 11,550 gallons]. The accident has forced the ministry to temporarily close the Yelabuga-Izhevsk zone of the M7 federal highway, connecting Moscow and Ufa, the capital of the Urals republic of Bashkortostan. The nearby railway line was also closed.

Large explosion at Russian military base closes oil pipeline
Flames ripped through the military complex near the city of Izhevsk, 750 miles east of Moscow, on Friday causing the evacuation 28,000 residents.  The fire killed two people and injured at least 45 according to Russian media reports. Russian pipeline owner Transneft said that it was not receiving the 161,000 barrels of oil that it usually gets each day from the region.

Video posted on a social media website purportedly shows the complex on fire with lit ammunition shooting into the sky like fireworks amid large fireballs. Russian agencies reported that the base stored 10,000 tonnes of shells and ammunition, equivalent in power to about 58,000 tonnes of TNT.

I’ll refrain from making any trite remarks about roasted taters and 12 steppe plans.

Pugachevo and Ufa are about 200 miles apart, and both are located a few hundred miles north of Kazakhstan’s northwestern frontier, north of the Caspian Sea.  Kazakhstan is an oil and gas rich former Soviet republic that has been ruled by the same guy, Nursultan Nazarbayev, since 1989. The country is about half muzzie, maybe more. Nazabeyev recently won a surprise election with 95% of the vote.

Kazakhstan has come under repeated fire for instituting effective one-party rule in which all political and economic decisions are made by Nazarbayev and his hand-picked ministers and assistants.

But this closed system has pursued a decade of business-friendly policies that have ensured 8.5 percent annual growth and a dramatic improvement in the lives of the 16.4 million people living across the vast country’s steppes.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/03/2011 at 12:10 PM   
Filed Under: • International • Military •  
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