‘Gigantic’ fire sets trucks alight and spreads to nearby buildings after explosion at fuel depot near Vasylkiv, south-west of Kiev

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Several Ukrainian firefighters are feared to have died after a blast tore through a fuel depot outside Kiev, sparking a huge fire that spread to nearby buildings.

Videos posted online showed the force of the explosion and the heatwave it produced, setting alight fire trucks that had rushed to the scene. A fireman wearing a silver heat-resistant suit and mask was seen running away from the scene of the disaster. “Everyone – leave. Whoever is still here – leave,” one fireman said in a video.

The interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said the initial explosion hit a fuel depot near the village of Vasylkiv, 20 miles (32km) south-west of Kiev.

“Gigantic. Firemen have died,” Avakov tweeted. His later Twitter updates said several firemen initially presumed to have died had been pulled out alive from the flames.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s emergencies ministry told AFP it was aware of six people being injured.

Kiev has been suffering from a dry hot spell for more than a week.

An interior ministry official said police were investigating three possible causes for the fire: violations of fuel storage regulations, technical malfunctions and arson.

The owner of the depot, BRSM-Nafta, said in a statement it believed the fire was the result of an arson attack, aimed at damaging its business.



A nearby filling station firm called KLO said it was also evacuating its staff from the scene. “The danger is real,” the company’s co-owner, Vyacheslav Steshenko, told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.