Experts: the explosion in Makhachkala reflects the country's infrastructure problems

Ekaterina Maximova

The blown-up gas station belonged to Ibrahim Shchamkhalov, a native of the Republic of Dagestan. According to SPARK, Shchamkhalov is an individual entrepreneur. In November 2020, the Caucasian Department of Rostechnadzor issued an indefinite license to Shchamkhalov Ibrahim Yusupovich for the operation of explosive and chemically hazardous production facilities of hazard classes 1,2 and 3.

SHOT claims that the entrepreneur was fined eight times for failing to comply with the legal order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations on time. And gives a list of violations.

Among them are the lack of a cooling system using water irrigation, non—compliance with the distance from the water tanks, non-compliance with the fire-fighting distance from underground tanks of liquid motor fuel to the secondary road. Also, the regulatory authorities recorded that the tanks with liquid motor fuel are not equipped with systems to prevent their overflow, and refueling platforms and refueling islands are not equipped with pre-explosive concentration alarms. There are a lot of other violations.

It is also reported that the owner of the gas station in 2019 was fined for working without a license. For such a «misdemeanor», IP Shchamkhalov paid a fine of 4,000 rubles.

«Judging by the information that came about the event, the immediate reason why such severe consequences became possible are all the same „snips-wheezes“. It is unlikely that the rules and regulations provide for and allow for such a number of dangerous objects on such a patch and close to the residential sector. A fire at one facility that led to an explosion at another facility is immediately a question for those who issued a construction permit. On top of everything else, extremely unstable power supply continues in Makhachkala for days, which leads to severe overloads throughout the network and quite understandable actions of people to somehow replace the missing electricity in the sockets. All this could not but lead to some kind of incident, and it happened,» publicist Anatoly Nesmian commented on the tragedy in Makhachkala.

Political scientist Andrey Nikulin also recalls that the explosion in Makhachkala coincided with a large-scale infrastructure crisis in Dagestan with massive blackouts due to the summer heat of light and water.

«It is not yet known whether this crisis caused the incident or not. But it is quite obvious that the infrastructure is thinning and is being kept on its word of honor not only in the Caucasus region, but also practically throughout the country. Years of underfunding, coupled with the sawing of those crumbs that woke up in the repair system, are affecting. Often, and usually everything is based on the remnants of capacities laid down even in Soviet times and is only waiting for an excuse to declare itself with breakdowns. Which at a critical moment can undulate through the system, crushing its weak nodes and links and lead to a massive collapse,» Nikulin commented.

In his opinion, «the need for massive, total and outstripping investments in the repair of networks and infrastructure of all kinds has long been suggested.» In the meantime, it remains to state the inevitability of the deteriorating dynamics and wait for the future. Realizing that the opportunities to prevent the most negative scenario are decreasing every day. «And there will be no miracle,» concluded political scientist Nikulin.

Publicist Andrey Okun also focuses on the fact that Dagestan is being covered by a crisis. And just recently, the head of the Republic, Sergei Melikov, was «on the rise», receiving President Putin in Derbent. And then, he continues, miscalculations accumulate in the region to a critical point, residents are left without water and electricity, protests begin and an explosion occurs at a gas station.

«First there were protests in Makhachkala against power outages, then residents of the village of Karaman-2 blocked the federal highway due to the lack of water in their homes. Now the explosion at the gas station. Perhaps the explosion has nothing to do with the system errors of the local authorities and became a manifestation of a tragic accident. At the same time, regardless of the conditions, the head of the region, Sergei Melikov, will be asked for the explosion. Too many incidents have happened in Dagestan in a short period of time,» Okun points out.

Ex-Director of FSUE «STC"Industrial safety» Vyacheslav Sidorov urged not to draw sharp conclusions.

«We need details. We need to look at everything, experts need to study everything, including the gap between the gas station and the service station. So far we have the first information, and the details are very important. There is no need to rush to conclusions,» Vyacheslav Sidorov believes.

Igor Pronin, scientific editor of the journal «Life Safety», noted that non—compliance with the instructions of the supervisory services is an urgent issue for the whole of Russia.

On August 14, in the evening, a tragedy occurred in Makhachkala, which could become the largest man-made accident in the Russia in recent years. Last night, hot on the heels of the EMERCOM of Russia on RD described the chronology of the tragedy as follows: according to preliminary information, the cause of the tragedy was a car with gas equipment. The car caught fire, there was an explosion, a fire started in the service station. Further, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia on RD clarifies, the fire spread to a nearby gas station.