28.03.2024

Russia Evacuates Thousands as Munitions Explode in Fire

The emergencies ministry said late Wednesday that it had sent additional firefighters from the Moscow region and was using technology including a fire-fighting train. The emergencies minister Yevgeny Zinichev traveled to the scene.

Russia on Wednesday evacuated more than 2,000 people from nearby villages after a wildfire set off explosions at a munitions depot in the Ryazan region southeast of Moscow, officials said.

More than 400 firefighters were battling into the evening to extinguish a blaze that broke out at the depot on Wednesday afternoon, with the authorities saying five people were injured but no one died.

The fire was sparked by a wildfire in dry grass nearby, the emergencies ministry said, causing munitions to explode continuously.

Flames and huge clouds of smoke rose up to the sky above the depot reportedly containing some 75,000 tons of munitions.

The Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal probe into potential breaches of rules on handling weapons.

Regional governor Nikolai Lyubimov described the situation as «complex» but said in a statement in the evening that «the worst is behind us, the situation is under control.»

The emergency ministry said it evacuated more than 2,300 residents living within a 5-kilometer radius of the fire and nearby highways were closed to traffic.

The western military district in charge of the site said it evacuated its troops after they attempted unsuccessfully to fight the fire.

Such accidents are relatively common in Russia due to large amounts of old munitions remaining in storage.

Peat Fires Smolder in Siberia Despite Bone-Chilling Temperatures

Siberian peat fires have continued to burn after a year of record-setting wildfires in and around the Arctic Circle despite temperatures below minus 50 degrees Celsius, The Siberian Times reported Wednesday.

Footage showing smoke rising from the snow in January and November offers physical evidence of the “zombie fire” phenomenon, which describes summertime blazes that continue smoldering through the winter, eventually igniting new fires. European scientists have voiced concerns that “zombie” fires could be causing earlier-than-normal wildfires.

A local resident who filmed the peat fires last weekend said the area was located near the site of last summer’s wildfires, which took place amid “extremely hot and dry weather.”

“It must be either peat on fire here, or, as some hunters who noticed these fires suggest, possibly young coal lignite,” The Siberian Times quoted the man, Ivan Zakharov, as saying.

Regional media that shared a video of the November peat fires said villagers report seeing still-active fires as late as the end of January, according to The Siberian Times.

“The summer fire didn’t stop,” the Tomponsky Vestnik newspaper said.

“We didn’t have wildfires reaching this far north to our area for many years,” scientist Nikita Zimov told The Siberian Times, recalling the previous surge in fires in the 1980s.

The republic of Sakha, Russia’s largest and coldest region, is in the midst of one of its coldest winters in years with mercury slipping below minus 59 C.

Scientists fear that, in addition to causing an early start to wildfire seasons, “zombie” fires could accelerate permafrost melt that triggers unpredictable damage and greenhouse gas emissions.

Russia, the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter with an economy heavily dependent on oil and gas, is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world due to its vast Arctic territories.

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