Eight liquefied gas wagons explode in Lithuania, evacuation ordered
Evacuation announced in Vilnius (photo: x.com/RT_com)
A major emergency occurred in Vilnius. Eight wagons with liquefied gas caught fire and exploded, LRT reported.
On the morning of September 10, gas tankers caught fire in Vilnius. The fire could not be localized, so around 14:00 the authorities announced an evacuation within a radius of one kilometer.
It is already known that one person was injured as a result of the incident.
At about 15:00, a representative of the Department of Fire and Rescue, Donatas Gurevicius, reported that a liquefied gas reservoir with a capacity of 50 cubic meters was burning.
Associate Professor of the Department of Organic Chemistry at Vilnius University, Rimantas Vaitkus, explained that it was liquefied petroleum gas, the main components of which are propane and butane.
The scientist emphasized that extinguishing such an amount of gas is practically impossible, it is necessary to wait until it burns out and prevent the fire from spreading to other reservoirs.
According to the representative of the Fire and Rescue Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, due to the extremely high temperature, active extinguishing is not currently being carried out. Other reservoirs are being cooled to avoid new explosions.
The total capacity of the gas storage facility is 2,000 cubic meters, the reservoirs are interconnected, so there is a risk of further fire spreading.
The director of the Fire and Rescue Department, Renatas Požela, stated that an operation is being prepared to close the valves that allow gas to circulate through the pipeline and maintain combustion. For this, they plan to use an "Aro" armored vehicle.
At the beginning of last year, before the closure of a shopping center in Lithuania, two boys planted an explosive device with a timer in an IKEA warehouse.
The damage caused by the fire is estimated at 485,500 euros.
The Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania believes that the arson of the IKEA warehouse in Vilnius was organized by Russian special services. According to them, Russia recruited two Ukrainians for this purpose.
