Ukraine blast in apartment block kills 19

Reuters ^ | 25 Dec 2008 | Yuri Kulikov

[BlackVeil]

Ukraine (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through an apartment building in southern Ukraine, killing 19 people, including two children, and 24 were unaccounted for, officials said on Thursday.

Twenty-one residents have been pulled out alive from the five-storey block in the Black Sea resort of Yevpatoria in the Crimea peninsula, Emergencies Ministry spokesman Ihor Krol said earlier in the day.

He said at least 24 people were missing.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko arrived in the town to meet rescue officials. President Viktor Yushchenko was due to arrive later.

The cause of the explosion on Wednesday night had not yet been established but it was "quite possible that there had been containers with oxygen or acetylene stored in the building," said the spokesman.

Officials said the blast sent concrete cascading down on two entrances to the building.

"As I was walking by, I heard a bang, and then I saw this building crumble," an eye-witness told Ukraine's Channel 5 television. ...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered his condolences to the relatives of the dead. Russians make up over half the population of Crimea, an autonomous region which used to belong to Russia.

Medvedev said Russia's Black Sea Fleet, stationed in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol and at the centre of a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Kiev during the summer, was ready to assist in the rescue efforts.

Casualties caused by gas blasts in often crumbling apartment buildings are common occurrences in former Soviet republics, particularly in winter when residents use more heating.

One such blast in October 2007 killed 15 residents in Ukraine's central city of Dnipropetrovsk.

[BlackVeil]

The cause of the blast is not clear - it may be an accident - or perhaps not. Also, the death toll is likely to rise.

[eastforker]

Storing oxygen and acetylene in the same enclosed building is a big no no here in the states, it is against the law for obvious reasons. Acetylene is very volatile in a free state.When stored in pressurized bottles with acetone base it is quite stable, however, if one of the bottles develop a leak an explosion is imminent.

[romanesq]

Sounds like the code for avoiding such accidents continue to plague buildings where the “green” communist codes were applied.

And an utter tragedy for so many to lose their lives on Christmas.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Given the shortages in Ukraine of gas for heat and cooking,it would not surprise me if residents of the building tinkered with the gas supply to make sure that they had heat. Maybe foxed the gas meter.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[BlackVeil]

Thank you for those informative details.

The death toll in the blast is now 27, and can be more.

An update:

Officials believe oxygen canisters in the building's basement exploded, said Volodymyr Ivanov, a spokesman for Crimea's branch of the Emergency Situations ministry. Ivanov said one canister was found intact and sent to forensic investigators. Ivanov said that other possible causes had not been ruled out, without elaborating.

[SunkenCiv]

Soviet Law Returns To Russia
FrontPage Magazine | December 24, 2008 | Stephen Brown
Posted on 12/24/2008 2:04:05 PM PST by rmlew
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2153941/posts