Incidents in Russia (Natural Disasters, Accidents and Emergencies)

KRASNOYARSK/MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - The death toll from a major accident at Russia's largest hydropower plant in south Siberia early on Monday has risen to 11, with 14 people injured and dozens still missing, a local emergencies official said.

"The latest reports said 11 people were killed and 14 injured," Dmitry Kudryavtsev, head of the regional emergencies center's press service, said. "The number of people still being searched for is over 50. Reports on the 67 missing have not been confirmed."

Earlier reports said eight people were killed and 10 injured when two water ducts collapsed at 08:15 local time (00:15 GMT), flooding a turbine hall. The disaster is believed to have been triggered by the explosion of an oil transformer while workers were carrying out repairs.

However, the Sayano-Shushenskaya station's chief engineer Andrei Mitrofanov told the emergencies center on the telephone later that 72 people were still unaccounted for.

RusHydro, the owner of the Sayano-Shushenskaya station built in 1978, said it was facing 1.5 billion rubles ($46 million) in monthly losses due to the accident.

The accident has cut power supplies to homes and companies, including metal giants Evraz Group and RusAl, forcing them to switch to emergency power. Six factories in the nearby Altai region have reportedly shut down due to the electricity shortage.

The energy ministry has meanwhile said that power supplies disrupted in five Siberian regions, including at aluminum plants, had been restored using supplies from thermal power stations in Siberia and the European part of Russia.

"The situation is under the control of the ministry. All agencies have been engaged in ensuring uninterrupted supplies," minister Sergei Shmatko said. "It is premature to talk about what caused the accident. Not all the circumstances have been studied."

Shmatko said electricity prices could grow for consumers in the region.

"We believe prices could rise by 5-7% for consumers in Siberia," Shmatko said, adding the ministry's council for regulating national energy supplies would consider measures to prevent unjustified price hikes.

Under reforms of the electricity sector, 50% of electric power began to be sold at market prices as of July 1, 2009. Electricity prices for households are set by the state.

Analysts say power prices for industries could rise 20-30% in Siberia following the accident, which forced nearby thermal power stations to increase output to compensate for the Sayano-Shushenskaya station's closure.

RusHydro's acting chief, Vasily Zubakin, said earlier that generating units unaffected by the accident could be reactivated within 45 days, but that restoring the station completly could take up to four years.

Zubakin also said the plant's dam was not damaged in the accident and posed no threat to local residents.

He said more than 60 people were still unaccounted for, while four people earlier reported missing had been found - one, in a state of shock, in the station's underground facility, one retrieved from the water, and two others at their homes.

Zubakin said the search effort would continue through the night as more pumps and other equipment arrive at the scene.

Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu is at the site, coordinating cleanup and search efforts.

President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed condolences to the victims' families.

Vladimir79 wrote:I hope the government will realise we have to fund public works more.

ULAN UDE, Russia — The disaster last week at Russia's biggest hydroelectric dam that is feared to have killed 75 shows the country lags very far behind in technology, President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.

"The only truth here is this. Our country is technologically very far behind," he said on a visit to the Siberian city of Ulan Ude.

"We really are very far behind and if we don't overcome this challenge then all those threats that everyone is talking about will truly become a reality."

Russian investigators have said a technical fault caused the August 17 disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant in southern Siberia and have ruled out terrorism as a possible cause.

Medvedev also accused Russia's enemies of writing out apocalyptic scenarios for its future after the tragedy and calling the disaster a "Chernobyl of the 21st century," in reference to the Soviet-era nuclear reactor accident.

"Those who don't like Russia within its existing borders and don't like its role in the world started rubbing their hands," he said.

sepheronx wrote:

Edit: But it is good that the President is telling it as it is. This will start to bring pressure to various officials and companies to start working their arses off to get new stuff out in the market and produce new things.

Vladimir79 wrote:
That is exactly why he talks like that and exactly why he talked like that after Georgia. It gets people off their arse to do something and gets the Duma to give him what he wants.

MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - Top secret documents were destroyed in a fire that broke out on Sunday in a military unit in western Russia's city of Tambov, killing five and injuring seven servicemen, a security agency source said.

The fire in the staff of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate unit occurred in the morning and embraced an area of 400 square meters (4,300 sq. feet). Two officers and three soldiers were killed. Two servicemen are in intensive care.

"The fire seriously affected the secret unit where documents of special government importance were kept," the source said, adding that the Russian defense minister ordered his first deputy, Col.-Gen. Alexander Kolmakov, to fly to the site.

"Damage is assessed as very serious," the source said.

A probe into the causes of the fire that was extinguished by 17 firefighting crews is underway.

The death toll from a horrific fire that engulfed a nightclub in Russia's Urals early on Saturday has risen to 109, local investigators said.

The fire broke out at the Lame Horse club in the city of Perm during an indoor fireworks display soon after 01:00 a.m. local time.

"During the fire, 102 people died. Seven more have died in hospital," an Investigation Committee spokesman told RIA Novosti.

The health minister earlier said that dozens of people were being kept alive with medical ventilators.

Tatyana Golikova said that most of the injured have burns covering more than 50% of their bodies. Several of them are being flown to Moscow for treatment.

"Unfortunately, the burns are quite serious... There are 130 people in hospital, of whom 88 are in a serious condition. Of these, 59 have been put on medial ventilators," the minister, currently in Perm along with other cabinet ministers, told President Dmitry Medvedev in a video linkup.

Emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu told the president that 34 of the bodies have been identified.

He said the club's owners had received two previous fines for breaching fire safety regulations, and were due for an inspection on Monday.

"The fire broke out in a place where pyrotechnics should not have been used under any circumstances," he said.

The venue had a suspended ceiling, which allowed the flames to spread rapidly.

"The power shut off immediately, and panic broke out," Shoigu said.

Eyewitnesses said the venue had only one exit, and a stampede ensued. Russian TV channels have shown footage filmed by clubgoer with a digital camera, showing the flames spreading over a ceiling decorated with twigs, in an apparent barn theme.

The owner and manager of the club, Anatoly Zak and Svetlana Yefremova, have been arrested, and face jail terms of up to seven years. Four other suspects are wanted in the case.

President Medvedev accused those running the club of gross negligence, and called for harsh punishments.

"They have no brains and no conscience. They showed complete indifference to what was going on... They must face full punishment," he said.

The president said the sentences the culprits face under current laws are far too mild.

"We must think about the laws on such events. They should be much stricter, and failure to abide by them, including breaches of fire safety regulations, should be much more severely punished."

The venue, which covers an area of 500 square meters, was almost completely destroyed by the blaze.

The club is known to have held several indoor fireworks displays in the past, shown in the image gallery on the Lame Horse website www.clubxl.ru.

The site still displays an advert for last night's party marking "the birthday of our favorite club", saying "guests dressed as new-born babies are admitted free until midnight."

The site offers "a bright lively disco with energy and drive with modern dance music - and at 1:00 at night the show begins." The club, with capacity of 450, says its guests are subject to "face control".

Perm Territory Governor Oleg Chirkunov has announced three days of mourning as of today.

"During the three days of mourning, Russian flags and Perm Territory flags will be flown at half mast. TV and radio stations and cultural establishments are asked to cancel all entertainment events and broadcasts during these days," the governor's press service said.

MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the management of a nightclub in the Urals where a fire killed 103 people of gross negligence, and called for harsh punishments.

A fire broke out in the Lame Horse club in the Urals city of Perm during an indoor fireworks display soon after 01:00 a.m. local time. Over 130 people are injured.

Emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu said during a video conference with the president that the club's owners had received two previous fines for breaching fire safety regulations, and were due for an inspection on Monday.

Medvedev said: "They have no brains and no conscience. They showed complete indifference to what was going on... They must face full punishment."

The owner and manager of the club, Anatoly Zak and Svetlana Yefremova, have been arrested, and face jail terms of up to seven years. Four other suspects are wanted in the case.

Medvedev said the sentences the culprits face under current laws are far too mild.

"We must think about the laws on such events. They should be much stricter, and failure to abide by them, including breaches of fire safety regulations, should be much more severely punished," the president said.

Regional security minister Igor Orlov told Russian media that the club's plastic ceiling caught fire during the indoor fireworks display, held as part of a celebration of the venue's seventh anniversary.

The venue, which covers an area of 500 square meters, was almost completely destroyed by the blaze.

The club is known to have held several indoor fireworks displays in the past, shown in the image gallery on the Lame Horse website www.clubxl.ru.

The site still displays an advert for last night's party marking "the birthday of our favorite club", saying "guests dressed as new-born babies are admitted free until midnight."

The site offers "a bright lively disco with energy and drive with modern dance music - and at 1:00 at night the show begins." The club, with capacity of 450, says its guests are subject to "face control".

Perm Territory Governor Oleg Chirkunov has announced three days of mourning as of today.

"During the three days of mourning, Russian flags and Perm Territory flags will be flown at half mast. TV and radio stations and cultural establishments are asked to cancel all entertainment events and broadcasts during these days," the governor's press service said.

The health ministry has said that the injured are being flown to Moscow, to be treated in the city's best hospitals.

MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti)

Vladimir79 wrote:Now people are committing fraud stealing aid money. I hate these people.

sepheronx wrote:

Wow, that is extreme (stupid scumbags). Please, I would like to read more about this.

Also, as for Gazprom not paying you, what is their end of the story? Can't you take them to court for lack of payment?

Vladimir79 wrote:
Isn't much to say. People were using SMS pretending they were a funding organisation for the victims set up by the state. People would get text message saying they can transfer funds to their accounts if they wish to give to victims.

Of course we can't, Gazprom is state owned. You can't sue the state and win. They don't pay because they are busy paying themselves when they have negative cash flows. No account balance means no payment unless the state intervenes.

Vladimir79 wrote:

Isn't much to say. People were using SMS pretending they were a funding organisation for the victims set up by the state. People would get text message saying they can transfer funds to their accounts if they wish to give to victims.

Of course we can't, Gazprom is state owned. You can't sue the state and win. They don't pay because they are busy paying themselves when they have negative cash flows. No account balance means no payment unless the state intervenes.

Gazprom went into some cash flow "problems" but I expected state to pull them out of it...

MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. A private plane came in collision with a snow removal machine at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday, representative of the Moscow transport investigative department Tatyana Morozova said.
“A Falcon plane was leaving Moscow for Paris,” she said. “During takeoff it collided with the airport’s snow removal machine. In the collision, foure people died - three people on board and the snow removal machine’s driver. Four bodies were found on the scene.”
The bodies are being identified now, she added.
“During taxi at 23:57 Moscow time [on October 20] it collided with a snow removal machine of the airport’s service. In the accident, the jet’s passenger and all members of the crew died,” the Vnukovo airport reports. Driver of the snow removal machine was not hurt.
“The meteorology visibility at the moment was 350 metres, the runway friction coefficient 0.5,” the report said.
The airport is not servicing departing or arriving planes yet, a source at the airport said.
“One passenger was registered for the flight - a citizen of France, a top manager of Total. Three members of the crew - also citizens of France. They all died,” the source said