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KY_EnviroGuy

(14,483 posts)
10. Reports from The Guardian and BBC....
Tue Aug 6, 2019, 06:41 AM
Aug 2019
Mass evacuation after fire triggers explosions at Siberian base
Flying shrapnel from military base leaves one soldier dead and at least seven injured

Andrew Roth in Moscow
Mon 5 Aug 2019

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/05/mass-evacuation-after-fire-triggers-explosions-at-siberian-base

(snips)
An estimated 40,000 tank and artillery shells are kept on the base in Achinsk, a Siberian city that lies near the Trans-Siberian railroad, 2,000 miles east of Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry said the storage site that exploded held gunpowder charges for artillery shells.
+++
It is not clear what caused the blasts, although lax safety precautions have caused similar accidents in the past. Siberia has also been hit by wildfires this summer, made worse by warming temperatures and a lack of rainfall.

Explosions at ammunition dumps can send unexploded shells flying for miles around, requiring a significant clean-up effort to de-mine residential areas before locals can return to their homes.


BBC....
Russia arms dump fire: huge blaze in Siberia extinguished
26 minutes ago

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49249504

(snips)
Firefighters have put out a blaze at an ammunition dump in Siberia and munitions are no longer exploding there, the Russian military says.

Ten massive Il-76 cargo planes and five Mi-8 helicopters are water-bombing the area, near the town of Achinsk in the Krasnoyarsk region. A defence ministry statement said "there are no more fires" at the site, an old dump due for closure housing some 55,000 artillery shells.

More than 9,500 people were evacuated. Six injured people are in hospital, but they are not critically ill.

Flying munitions damaged a school and a kindergarten in the village of Kamenka. But Deputy Defence Minister Gen Dmitry Bulgakov said that besides smashed windows there was little structural damage in the area. Local residents were evacuated from inside a 20km (12 miles) radius around the arms dump.



KY...........
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