Seventeen sapper teams at work in Ulyanovsk military depot
ULYAYNOVSK, November 18. (Itar-Tass). Dud munitions scattered around the Ulyanovsk military depot in fire and explosions have been collected and taken to a ten-meter-deep quarry for demolition.
Seventeen sapper teams are at work at the depot. Heavy machinery is clearing the debris.
The Ulyanovsk regional government asked citizens to stay calm, as sappers would blast some of the explosions that could not be moved.
Families of the servicemen who died putting down fire at the Ulyanovsk military depot will receive 100,000 rubles each from the regional budget, regional labor and social development minister Anatoly Vasilyev said.
The regional authorities will also assist the burial of Vladislav Pankov and Ivan Kuznetsov and employ Pankov’s wife.
A breach of technology caused the Friday explosions at the Ulyanovsk military depot, Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said last weekend.
Forensic experts will reconstruct the situation but “it is already obvious there was a serious breach of technology,” he said.
The fire burned about 120 tonnes of artillery munitions. Five self-induced explosions occurred on Saturday and Sunday, including four on Saturday night and one at 7:20 a.m. Moscow time on Sunday.
The explosions resulted from high temperatures inside the depot. “Water is being poured inside to reduce the temperature,” he said.
The cleanup is almost over. All the local plants, among them the Ulyanovsk cartridge plant and the Aviastar-SP aviation plant, resumed the operation on Monday.
“The personnel of those plants spent November 14 and 15 cleaning up the damage. There is no serious impact on the infrastructure, which may disrupt the production process,” regional industry and transport minister Vildan Zinnurov said.
The regional transport operates as usual, he noted.
The three social security institutions damaged by fire had been restored, so that they could reopen on Monday.
Five out nine damaged schools will opened on Monday, Ulyanovsk Governor Sergei Morozov said. Another four schools are likely to reopen on November 18. The situation is more serious at the 14th school on Academician Pavlov Street, which adjourns the military depot. The building might have been deformed by explosions, so it needs a thorough examination.
One of the 20 kindergartens will also open with a delay, as it is too close to the epicenter of explosions.
The city promised to repair public utilities within three days.
Another ten million rubles have been assigned for the cleanup of the Ulyanovsk military depot fire and explosions, the governor said.
The government will fund the reconstruction of homes damaged by the explosions, he said.
The regional budget has assigned 20 million rubles, and another ten million will come from the governor’s fund. There will be municipal funding, as well.
The explosions damaged 46% of homes in two residential areas of Ulyanovsk and broke window glass in nine schools and 20 kindergartens.
More than 1,000 applications from tenants of damaged houses have been lodged with the Ulyanovsk social security and public utility headquarters. Representatives of local authorities visit damaged buildings to estimate the amount of allocations. Servicemen are helping civilian repairmen, and some tenants are repairing their homes unaided. The governor promised to compensate their expenditures.
Six people hurt in the fire are still at hospital. “The injured and families of the dead will receive large compensations,” Admiral Vysotsky said.
The 31st Navy depot sustained an explosion at about 4:00 p.m. Moscow time on November 13, presumably during the disposal of munitions. The explosion sparked a fire, which later spread onto other buildings. The fire was put down only on November 14. The depot personnel were evacuated. Two servicemen died, and 60 asked for medical aid; six of them were hospitalized.
The military depot was built in 1941. It stored, repaired and disposed various kinds of naval armaments: mines, torpedoes and deepwater bombs.
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