The Dalstroy steamer (formerly Heinrich Yagoda ) made voyages from Nakhodka to Magadan in the 1930s – 1940s, delivering goods and prisoners to Kolyma . On July 24, 1946, during the loading of the ammonal in Nakhodka due to gross safety violations, an explosion occurred that caused the death of one hundred and five people, significant material damage and environmental pollution [1] .
Causes of the disaster
Submerged with gross violations of safety rules, he drove into the hold 7,000 tons of ammonal fired up even while loading the ship. 400 tons of TNT in another hold exploded under the influence of high temperature, completely destroying the port facilities at Cape Astafyev and causing significant casualties. Part of the ship’s crew, who left it shortly before the explosion, ended up in the “dead zone” and suffered little. After the explosion of the Dalstroy steamboat M.S. The barge, onto which the ammonal was unloaded, burned down during the investigation into the Dalstroy explosion, and a day after the fire, a car with ammonal on the driveways burned down on the barge. This saved the surviving crew members who were found not guilty of an explosion.
Consequences
USSR Minister of Internal Affairs Kruglov - to Stalin, Beria, August 14, 1946. [2] :
As a result of a fire and explosion in the Nakhodka Bay, the Dalstroy steamer was destroyed and all the cargoes on it were in quantity: explosives - 917 tons, sugar - 113 tons, various manufactured goods - 125 tons, grain - 600 tons, metal - 392 tons, and all in the amount of 9 million rubles; in the burnt warehouses of Dalstroy destroyed various industrial and food cargoes worth 15 million rubles. and explosives worth 25 million rubles.
During the explosion of the ship “Dalstroy” 105 people were killed and died from wounds, including: military personnel - 22, civilians - 34, prisoners - 49; 196 people were injured and are in medical institutions, including: military personnel - 55, civilians - 78 and prisoners - 63.
The damage at the port was so serious that the bulk of the cargo traffic, including the transportation of prisoners to Kolyma , was transferred to the port of Vanino [2] [3] .
The explosion resulted in a two-hour "fuel oil rain" - the deposition of almost 2 thousand tons of fuel oil , raised by an explosion into the sky, on the earth's surface.
Memories of Witnesses
The surviving senior assistant to the ship's captain P. P. Kuyantsev wrote the book “I Would Choose the Sea Again ...” [4] , one of the chapters of which is dedicated to this tragedy.
See also
- List of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions
Sources
- ↑ Explosion at Dalstroy Archival copy dated June 9, 2008 at Wayback Machine // Materials of the Vladivostok online newspaper Checked December 11, 2009
- ↑ 1 2 Explosion of the Dalstroy steamboat and its consequences for the history of the Gulag // Materials of the Radio Liberty website Checked December 11, 2009
- ↑ V. Shalamov. Essays on the underworld. Bitch war // Materials of the site “Everything about life in prison” Checked December 11, 2009
- ↑ P.P. Kuyantsev . I would choose the sea again ... Essays. Travel notes. Memories. Interview. - Vladivostok : IPK "Dumas", 1998. - 131p .: ill. - (Captains).