Is Noginsk burning?

A city near Moscow was almost flooded with gasoline

The Moscow region city of Noginsk was virtually on the verge of complete incineration yesterday. On Wednesday night, after a powerful explosion, the Neftoservis oil depot, located just 300 meters from residential buildings, caught fire. Gasoline spilled from pipelines formed a real lake of fire. As a result, there was a real threat of a powerful explosion and a spill of thousands of tons of gasoline from the tanks. But, fortunately, after just four hours, firefighters, whose work was personally supervised by the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, managed to control the fire. However, none of the rescuers or civilians were injured. Of the oil depot employees, two people died and one received severe burns. What caused the emergency remained unclear yesterday, but investigators considered the version of sabotage unlikely.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the fire at the oil depot began after two powerful explosions that occurred successively at 6.02 and 6.09. According to eyewitnesses, the roar was such that it woke up residents not only of the entire Noginsk, but also of the surrounding villages. When the first fire crews arrived at the scene, part of the territory was in flames from gasoline spilling from the pipes and two fuel tanks - with a volume of 5,000 and 1,000 cubic meters - and two tanks on the access roads were burning. Within ten minutes, all Noginsk fire crews were pulled to the base, after which rescuers from neighboring areas, three firefighting trains and a helicopter were called. In total, 272 employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations took part in the fight against the fire.

The situation was complicated by the fact that not far from the enterprise there are residential buildings, from which a total of 800 people were evacuated, and a maternity hospital. Several women were in a prenatal state. Doctors even had to deliver one patient right during the evacuation. In total, 194 women and 60 newborns were taken out of the maternity hospital.

Firefighters quickly managed to cut off the flames from other tanks and drive the surviving railway tanks to a safe distance, and after a foam attack the fire was put out. Along the way, the base area was covered with sand, more than 300 tons of which were delivered by truck in just two hours.

Already around noon, ecologists, fire testing laboratory workers, criminologists, explosives experts and the investigative team of the prosecutor's office led by the prosecutor of the Moscow region Ivan Sydoruk began inspecting the accident site. Based on the fact of the fire, the regional prosecutor's office opened a criminal case for “violation of safety regulations at explosive objects.” Experts found out that the first explosion occurred in a utility block where three oil depot operators on duty were resting. Two of them died, one was hospitalized in intensive care with severe burns. Measurements showed that the concentration of gasoline vapors near the burnt-out cabin was seven times higher than the norm, but experts could not say why this happened yesterday. As for the dangerous proximity of the oil depot to residential areas, it is unlikely that anyone will be held accountable for this. The base was built before the war, and the residential buildings were built in the 70s and 80s.

Tatiana GRITSENKO