The emergency happened at the warehouse of the fireworks manufacturer, who was declared bankrupt and disrupted supplies for the Ministry of Defense
It is not the first time that the company that rented a warehouse at the factory where the explosion occurred on August 9 has come to the attention of law enforcement agencies. In March 2023, Pyro-Ross was declared bankrupt, and the courts are considering three claims of the Ministry of Defense against the company due to non-fulfillment of obligations under supply contracts. In 2019, Pyro-Ross fireworks exploded during a fireworks display in Minsk - then one person was killed, at least ten were injured. As a result of the emergency in Sergiev Posad, one woman is listed as dead, three more people are in serious condition in intensive care. A total of 56 people were injured, 38 houses, two schools, a sports complex and a store were damaged, said Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region. The authorities have already begun to eliminate the consequences of the explosion.
Analysis of blockages
On the evening of August 9, it became known that one of the victims of the explosion on the territory of the Zagorsky Optical and Mechanical Plant in Sergiev Posad died in hospital - this information was confirmed by the governor of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov. According to the source of Izvestia, the deceased woman, born in 1978, was diagnosed with burns of 100% of the body, an open craniocerebral injury, fractures and bruises. The cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
Three more people are currently in intensive care. One of the victims, who is in serious condition, is planned to be evacuated from Sergiev Posad District Hospital to the Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery or the First City Hospital in Moscow, our source also said.
In total, 56 people were injured as a result of the emergency (30 of them are being treated in a hospital, 26 went to the emergency room, they did not need hospitalization), but there may still be people under the rubble, Andrei Vorobyov said. The analysis of the rubble can take about 12 hours, he said.
Sources of Izvestia claim that the cause of the incident was the so-called human factor. The explosion occurred in one of the hangars. Those who were at their workplaces in neighboring buildings told Izvestia that they first heard a loud explosion — and almost at the same moment, windows were broken in the premises.
— I was miraculously not hurt, — recalls one of the employees of the tenant company of the premises. — There was an explosion, we fell to the floor and lay for about five minutes. After that, the guard came running and told everyone to leave.
One of the victims told Izvestia that he was 50 m from the epicenter, but does not know what exactly exploded. He was lucky: he was in the corner of the room and received only a slight concussion, he did not need hospitalization. Another victim said that he received a head wound and is in the hospital.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
— I didn't see anyone die, but a steel panel fell on one of the workers, — the loader Sergey told Izvestia. — He got a couple of scratches, it was okay. And the building itself was very hooked: if we were all in the right wing, we could have died.
Engineer-technologist Yuri at the time of the emergency was in a warehouse next to the hangar in which the explosion occurred.
— I heard a small pop, I thought it was thunder. And then it hit me, I got up, I looked, the computer went, the windows flew out, and I immediately went to look for people in the workshop," he told Izvestia. — We met the victim with minor injuries, took him to the ambulance. I went to the place of the explosion — and there was a healthy funnel.
Police officers are on duty on the territory of the complex, another hangar is visible near the explosion site — its right part has almost completely collapsed. Buildings located around the epicenter of the explosion, such as the building of the branch of the University named after S.Y. Witte, were severely damaged. In the neighboring apartment building — opposite the university — the windows are broken.
In total, 38 apartment buildings and four cars were damaged as a result of the emergency. Two schools, a sports complex and a store were also destroyed, Andrei Vorobyov said.
Windows were knocked out in buildings, furniture and internal partitions were demolished.
"Due to the failure of the boiler stack of the ZOMZ plant, the supply of hot water to consumers has been stopped from 10:45 Moscow time," the Telegram channel of the Sergiev Posad city administration says. The timing of the resumption of water supply is not yet known.
— My apartment is not far away, the windows were blown out there because of the explosion, - one of the local residents who came to look at what happened at the plant told Izvestia.
Houses from the private sector, which are located nearby, were also affected.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
— I came from the night shift, just fell asleep — and there was an explosion, — pensioner Zinaida told Izvestia. — After a while, when the deafness let go, I realized that I was screaming. I have five rooms in the house, almost all of them have broken windows.
Management companies have already begun to restore damaged windows in residential buildings, said Andrei Gorbunov, Deputy head of the Sergiev Posad City District Administration for Construction. He stressed that everything that was destroyed during the explosion at the plant will be restored at the expense of the authorities.
Fireworks displays
The explosion occurred in a metal hangar measuring 40 by 40 m of the company "Pyro-Ross", which rented the premises of the plant — both warehouse and workshops, said Andrey Vorobyov. This organization was engaged, in particular, in the production of pyrotechnic products, fireworks displays and the transportation of dangerous goods.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
The governor stressed that the plant itself has not been related to the production of optics for a long time, as some media initially reported. "Pyrotechnics have been produced on it for a long time," Andrei Vorobyov stressed.
The company "Piro-Ross" was registered in 1994. According to the SPARK database, from 2009 to 2023, it concluded 435 contracts totaling more than 385 million rubles, including 110 state contracts.
At the same time, the company has been fulfilling its obligations with delays in recent years. In February of this year, the Moscow Arbitration Court decided to recover from Pyro-Ross a penalty on the claim of the Ministry of Defense in the amount of 23.2 million rubles for delays in deliveries. In addition, the courts are considering three claims from the Ministry of Defense for the fulfillment of obligations under supply contracts — for 8 million, 3 million and 4 million rubles. In March 2023, the company was declared bankrupt, the Federal Tax Service blocked its accounts, and a bankruptcy trustee was appointed to the company.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
In addition, back in 2019, there was a scandal around Pyro-Ross. Fireworks purchased from the company exploded during a fireworks display in Minsk for the Independence Day of Belarus. Then one person was killed, at least ten were injured.
The Main Investigative Department of the IC of Russia in the Moscow region has opened a criminal case on violation of the requirements of industrial safety of hazardous production facilities (Article 217 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In the event that an emergency does not entail the death of a person, the penalty under this article is up to three years in prison.
The version with the attack of an unmanned aerial vehicle on the plant has not been confirmed, said Olga Vradiy, a representative of the Main Investigative Department of the IC for the Moscow region.
The city prosecutor Alexander Dronyaev is working on the spot. According to the source of Izvestia, the CEO of Pyro Ross, Sergey Chankaev, was taken for questioning on the afternoon of August 9, but he does not have an investigative status yet, charges have not been filed.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
As lawyer Alexander Burchuk explained to Izvestia, when investigating such cases, if there is no obvious information indicating an external influence — for example, sabotage or a terrorist attack — the investigation considers what happened exactly as a violation of industrial safety rules. In this case, experts inspect the scene, study the documentation. According to him, first of all, they will check the availability of a license for a dangerous production facility. If it was not, then this is an obvious violation of industrial safety standards.
Alexander Burchuk explained that if the deceased appear in the case, this will not lead to the re-qualification of the case, since Article 217 of the Criminal Code already provides for the probability of a person's death.
— In practice, a criminal case is initiated according to the lowest qualification, so that later it would be possible to further qualify it, — the lawyer stressed.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov
Image source: iz.ru
Burchuk explained that the experts will give their opinion on the results of the explosion-technical expertise when the cause of the explosion is established.
Natalia Bykadorova
Roman Soldatov
Stanislav Kuchushev
