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On Monday after noon, a joint fire brigade rushed to Liepų Street, where the particle board company Klaipedos Mediena (KM), which manufactures particle board, operates.
Residents of the surrounding neighborhoods heard two powerful explosions, saw balls of black smoke rising from the company grounds.
The blast wave destroyed the biological treatment building, and in another chipboard workshop, a violent fire broke out in an instant: an open flame burned the ceiling and interior. The fire spread rapidly through the vents.
The fire was extinguished by teams from the Fire and Rescue Service, who arrived in seven cars and needed help from the surrounding areas; Gargždai and Kretinga firefighters were working at the scene of the accident.
The firefighters did not risk entering, as the fire severely damaged the structures of the wood workshop: the dangerously sloping walls could topple over. After more than three hours, the fire was located.
The three hastily ambulance brigades weren’t enough when it became clear that nine KM workers affected by the incident needed help.
When the disaster struck, Klaipedos Medienos employed about 160 people. The blast wave was so strong that some workers in the yard were hit a few meters away.
24 people were evacuated from the company’s facilities. Some of them managed to escape through the windows of a burning building. The injured workers were transferred to Klaipeda University Hospital (KUL).
“Seven burned workers required medical assistance: five were admitted to the Resuscitation Department and two to the Traumatology Department. The condition of both is complicated: people burned their hands, their faces and other parts of their bodies, ”said VULas Janušonis, director of KUL.
On the same day, the Klaipėda Municipality convened a meeting of the Commission on Emergency Situations. Firefighters, specialists from the Labor Inspectorate and environmentalists explain the circumstances of the accident.
“A brick wood chip press shop built three decades ago has collapsed. He and the biological treatment plant building were connected by pipes.
We were preparing to modernize the production process. Currently, the company’s activities have been suspended, “explained Nikolai Ivanov, director general of the Ministry of Finance. The losses incurred have not yet been calculated.
When asked what could have happened, the lumber company buildings were suddenly devastated by waves of explosions and fire, the KM leaders just shrugged, did not want to guess, were afraid of misleading the public.
However, rumors were already circulating in the city that explosions were fluttering due to obstruction of ventilation equipment.
Some Klaipeda residents associate the fire with an old boiler room, burning production waste: sawdust, briquettes, chips.
There have been disasters before
Klaipedos Mediena belongs to the Western Wood Group (VMG), one of the largest plywood and furniture production groups in the Baltic countries. Its administrator and owner of a controlling stake is the millionaire businessman Sigitas Paulauskas.
This is not the first disaster for VMG. More than twenty years ago, a large fire devastated the Sakuona lumber company located in the village of Grauminė (Klaipėda district): almost the entire workshop caught fire. There were more fires at this company.
