Fires are raging in the Sverdlovsk region – the largest of them occurred on April 25 in the urban-type settlement of Sosva, located 260 km north of Yekaterinburg.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire destroyed half of the village of about 7,000 people. A school, a hospital, a colony and the central street located on the territory of the settlement burned down. According to the latest data, 92 houses burned in Sosva, the flames covered more than 2 thousand square meters.
As a local resident, Svetlana Mishina, said in an interview with socialbites.ca on Tuesday, the fire allegedly started from one of the village enterprises.
“They say it all started in a sawmill today. It’s still burning, lots of houses, shops, schools and hospital administrations burned. Everything is on fire. The helicopter flew – and it’s no longer visible. They say they saved the school. It’s burning five blocks from me,” the woman said.
Although the fire started during the daytime, the local emergency mode was only started at 21:00 Sverdlovsk time (19:00 Moscow time). At that time, flames engulfed about 50 buildings. According to the Regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, the fire started spreading from wood waste to buildings in the neighborhood. But the blowing wind and dry grass helped spread the fire further.
The sawmill version was also approved by the Sverdlovsk district prosecutor’s office, which regulated the control. However, the exact cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
In the comments under the posts about the fire in Sosva on social networks, most users are inclined to believe that the fires in different parts of the Sverdlovsk region are caused by careless lighting of a fire when burning dry grass: in recent days, the weather in the region has been hot in April, the air warms up more than 20 degrees.
A group of 60 people and 14 pieces of equipment, including the Mi-8 helicopter, were first sent to the fire. At dusk, almost all the forces of the regional Ministry of Emergencies withdrew to Sosva. According to the latest data, 120 people and 33 pieces of equipment are participating in the extinguishing efforts. Among them are two fire trains, a helicopter belonging to the Ministry of Emergencies and the Russian Guard.
On the territory of the village there was a medical correctional institution number 23, where HIV patients were kept. According to local residents, it almost completely burned down. Then the head of the regional GUFSIN press service, Alexander Levchenko, said that 240 convicts were released from the institution.
“There are two hospitals on the land of the institution, there are patients with tuberculosis, they are small. There are about 200 males and several dozen females. The women’s section was created a few years ago when there were only men. The men will go to the men’s reformatory, there is another one in Nizhny Tagil. “For women, a special room has been temporarily set up in the women’s colony,” he said.
Around 23:00 Moscow time, the Sverdlovsk Department of the Ministry of Emergencies reported that during the extinguishing, rescuers found the body of a deceased person.
“The rapid spread of the fire is facilitated by the large amount of dry vegetation, winds of 20 meters per second, and the distance from water sources. To supply water to the firefighting area, firefighters laid main lines from the Sosva River with a total length of 2 km. “The efforts to extinguish the fire in the village of Sosva, Sverdlovsk Region, do not stop for a minute.”
As eyewitnesses said in the local press and on social networks, “Sosva has almost disappeared.” The situation in the village is described by residents as “total horror”, although the wind has subsided and the spread of flames has slowed.
Residents of the burning houses are currently housed in schools. The village headman, Gennady Makarov, said he would meet with the residents the next morning. At 10 o’clock the ministers, the police, the prosecutor’s office and other officials will go out to see them.
“We will immediately consider the questions of each resident, marking each by last name – who needs what, who will we help. Now the fire continues in Sosva. Helicopters, fire trucks were working, tomorrow the helicopters will fly again,” he said.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Evgeny Kuyvashev, instructed the mobilization of all services of the regional Ministry of Health in case of need. He also said that the issue of financial support to fire victims will be resolved in the near future.