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Photo from Ukrinform–UATV
The Ministry of Defense reported that on the territory of the 65th military arsenal in Balakliia in Kharkiv region, where a fire started yesterday, the situation is now under control.
Ammunition depots are now safe.
“As of the morning of May 4, 2018, on the territory of the 65th arsenal, the measures for the final elimination of the emergency are being taken. The situation is currently under control,” the Ministry of Defense reported.
“There is no grass fire on the uncut technical site,” the ministry further added. Local residents are no longer in danger.
Balakliia City mayor, Ivan Stolbovyi, said that the situation is calm. “Everything has been normalized. People are all in place, the city lives a normal life. All public transport is working normally. There are still planes and helicopters that water the localized fire area. Since evening, there have been almost no explosions. There were just a few recorded over night. Now I’m at work and have not heard a single explosion,” he said.
On May 3, at around 1:35p.m, a fire started when dry grass caught fire around the facility. The fire led to detonation of shells. Residents from the closest buildings were evacuated. No one was injured.
Ammunitions stopped exploding around 4p.m yesterday.
Servicemen and rescuers of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service provided security for the local population. The main fire has mostly been extinguished, but firefighters are working to normalize the situation.
The fire had covered about 35 hectares of the depot. More than 100 people were engaged in extinguishing the fire.
This is not the first time this depot has caught fire. There was another one late in March 2017.
The explosions that followed killed a woman and injured three people.
