Russian president Dmitry Medvedev today sacked a number of key naval officers and ordered disciplinary action against Navy Chief for failing to prevent a major blaze at a base near here as the death toll in the country's worst wildfires rose to 48.
Medvedev today rushed back to Moscow from his Black Sea retreat in Sochi to hold an emergency meeting of the national Security Council as the authorities were unable to control wildfires.
In his televised comments, Medvedev ordered disciplinary action against Navy Chief admiral Vladimir Vysotsky for 'incompetence' and dismissal of senior officials, for fire at the Navy's Air and supply base in the Kolomenskoye of the Moscow region. Although the defence ministry up to yesterday denied media reports.
The prosecutor general's office in a statement said: "The fire destroyed base headquarters, the accountant's office, a club, and two garages, 13 hangars with aviation equipment of various kinds and 17 parking lots with parked vehicles."
The news web site Lifenews.ru reported that the blaze destroyed or damaged 200 aircraft and caused damages of about $670 million.
"A fire that caused grave consequence occurred at a defence ministry facility in the Moscow region. A preliminary investigation into its cause has been carried out, the probe will continue, but what has been ascertained shows that the incident stems from the non-fulfilment of service duties and criminal negligence, as they were unable to contain the wildfire that was spreading at a rather slow rate," Medvedev said.
A visibly agitated Medvedev went on: "It is unknown where senior officials were at the time."
"Therefore, I've made this decision on the Navy leadership. I have ordered disciplinary action against Navy Chief admiral Vysotsky and his deputy Alexander Tatarinov for incompetence, sacked deputy chief of the logistic support system Sergeyev, Naval aviation chief Kuklev, deputy chief of naval aviation Col Rasskazov-Manakov, and the chief of base number 2512.
"I have instructed the defence minister to dismiss a number of other officers for disciplinary violations," Medvedev declared and warned: "If something similar happens in other places, I'll act likewise without any regret."
He said there was a serious threat to strategic installations from spreading wildfires.
Emergency situations minister Sergei Shoigu said that in the last 24 hours more than 300 new wildfires have erupted.
At the Security Council meeting Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the situation in Sarov town the home of Federal Nuclear Centre is now under control and extra army and interior troops have been called in to battle the wildfires threatening the former Soviet nuclear weapons factory.
A heavy smog from the wildfires burning around Moscow blanketed the capital today. Experts warned that the concentration of toxic particles had reached dangerous levels.
The smoke was so thick in the area that fire fighting planes were flying in zero visibility, using data from flight dispatchers and thermographic cameras to target the fires, the emergency situations ministry said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Azerbaijan have sent fire fighting aircraft and helicopters and Belarus has also made a similar offer, although Russia has not sought international assistance.
Rossiya 24 channel quoting crisis managers said that for the first time fire-fighting robots were being used to contain forest fires in Sarov.
The death toll has risen to 48, and the number of people who had lost their homes to the fires increased to about 3,500, while 1,900 homes have been gutted by wildfires.
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