Translated material
Torch consequence
City authorities are counting losses from a gas explosion on Ozernaya Street
Only today the capital’s authorities plan to open traffic along Ozernaya Street in western Moscow, where on the night of May 10 a powerful explosion occurred as a result of a gas pipeline break. The fire that followed, which experts assessed as the largest in scale in the post-war history of Moscow, was extinguished only after 15 hours. As a result of the emergency, several people were injured, several dozen cars were burned, and the premises of two research institutes were partially burned out. In addition, due to damage to the cables running next to the gas pipeline, more than 80 thousand MGTS subscribers were left without communication.Today, repair work on the damaged section of the gas pipeline is expected to be completed. It remained unclear yesterday when it would be possible to eliminate all the consequences of the emergency. The exact cause of the accident has also not yet been established. Representatives of the capital's authorities are confident that it is exclusively man-made in nature and was caused by the mistakes of those who laid the gas pipeline. The prosecutor's office does not rule out that the accident was caused by the negligence of the services responsible for the operation, diagnostics and repair of the gas pipeline. However, so far no criminal case has been initiated.
A gas pipeline explosion in the west of Moscow occurred on May 10 at approximately 0.36 on Ozernaya Street near the Moscow Ring Road. The emergency led to a strong fire, which was assigned the fifth, highest, level of complexity. According to eyewitnesses, at first a strong sound of escaping gas was heard, similar to the roar of a jet plane taking off, and after about a minute there was an explosion and ignition of the gas, after which a torch was formed that was visible for many kilometers. The height of the flame, according to various estimates, was 200-300 m. Despite the fact that the gas supply was almost immediately cut off, the fire was extinguished only after 15 hours, and the total volume of burned fuel was 40 thousand cubic meters. As a result of the incident, five people received burns. All of them were in cars driving along the Moscow Ring Road at the time of the explosion. According to experts, casualties were avoided only because the gas pipeline ruptured in an industrial area, at a relative distance from residential buildings. The fire, which was extinguished by 35 fire crews, is recognized as the largest in the history of the post-war capital.
The fire disabled the telephone cable running in the same place, as a result of which 86 thousand MGTS subscribers were left without communication in the Solntsevo and Novoperedelkino districts, as well as in Domodedovo and Vnukovo near Moscow. Also, due to the fire, more than 10 thousand subscribers were disconnected from the Internet. As a result of the explosion and subsequent fire, 14 cars were burned, about 80 more were damaged, and 130 cars were evacuated. The building of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Optical and Physical Measurements” (VNIIOFI), located near the scene of the emergency, was severely damaged by the fire. On the seventh and eighth floors, part of the facade was burned; on the seventh floor, glass was broken from the end of the building, and window frames were burned. According to some reports, the fire destroyed laboratories with expensive equipment in which experiments were carried out in the field of nanotechnology. Shocked scientists still find it difficult to estimate the losses and hope for help from the authorities.
First Deputy Mayor of Moscow Pyotr Biryukov said last night that gas services have already filled the repaired section of the gas pipeline with gas and have begun test purging. By midnight, repairmen expected to fill up the huge crater that had formed at the site of the emergency.
“We had to deal not only with repairing the pipe, it also needed to be asphalted. We completed the work of laying telephone lines, the Internet, and television,” Mr. Biryukov noted, without specifying, however, exactly when communication services would be fully restored. Traffic along Ozernaya Street, which was blocked immediately after the explosion, is expected to be reopened this morning.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who is on a visit to Tokyo, said yesterday that the accident occurred due to poor welding of a gas pipeline in 1976. “The reason is clear. Now I can say with good reason that the man-made accident occurred due to the fact that in 1976 the medium pressure pipeline was welded incorrectly and in the place where the pipe made a turn, a narrowing was installed from 1 m to 70 cm. Any narrowing, any turn “An unpleasant thing for metal and pipelines,” said the mayor. “Perhaps a slight surge in pressure during the gas supply also helped.” Yuri Luzhkov noted that “all this did not affect the situation in the energy supply and heat supply of Moscow.”
The head of Rostekhnadzor, Nikolai Kutin, said yesterday that the commission to investigate the causes of the accident will work for about two more weeks. According to him, several versions are currently being considered, including “the technical process of installing a section of the gas pipeline, the possibility of external influence from third parties (including during cable laying), as well as a version of a terrorist attack, which is currently not confirmed.” Fragments of the exploded pipe and soil particles from the accident site have already been sent for examination.
The Western District Prosecutor's Office, for its part, began an investigation into the incident. “According to the technical report, the accident occurred as a result of a pipeline rupture in a section that was not protected by a casing pipe. The inspection showed that the cause of the pipe rupture and the subsequent explosion of the distribution gas pipeline, which was in emergency condition, was its unprotection by the casing pipe. “The Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement. “The cause of the fire was a short circuit that occurred as a result of a gas pipeline rupture and a shock wave in a power cable located in the immediate vicinity, on which local burns were installed, characteristic of the thermal effect of an electric arc of a short circuit.”
According to prosecutors, as a result of the fire, 40 statements were received from citizens and legal entities alleging property damage totaling over 500 thousand rubles.
The Prosecutor General's Office also said yesterday that based on the results of the pre-investigation check, the issue of criminal prosecution of the officials who carried out the installation, diagnostics, testing and inspection of the gas distribution pipeline will be resolved.