Russian forest fire destroyed naval base outside Moscow

[asto]

Russian hellish fires completely destroyed naval base outside Moscow: 200 aircraft burnt down

Publication time: Today at 19:39 Emirate time

The forest fire has destroyed a large Russian naval base outside Moscow. Its occurred on July 29,
but became known only on August 3. A Russian news agency, Life News, was the first to report
about the incident: according to its data, 200 aircraft with the value of about $ 670 million had
been reduced to ashes outside Moscow.

For more info, check this link: http://www.kavkaz.org.uk/eng/content/20 ... 2344.shtml

[Stratofreighter]

A Russian news agency, Life News, was the first to report
about the incident: according to its data, 200 aircraft with the value of about $ 670 million had been reduced to ashes outside Moscow.

For more info, check this link: http://www.kavkaz.org.uk/eng/content/20 ... 2344.shtml

[Rockville]

A simular message was published by Defense News. Link: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i= ... =EUR&s=LAN" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Reading all that news I was wondering what could be/was stored in that location.

[ehusmann]

Looking at Google Earth, the base at the following location looks like the best candidate: 54°54'23.99"N 39° 1'38.66"O
A number of large hangars and quite a line with MiG-29 at the platform. No idea if they are stored and no idea if the Navy had such a large number of MiG-29s, but I cannot find any other large base in the neighbourhood of Kolomna.
By the way, Ryazan is also very close, with a large number of Il-76, Tu-22 and other stuff on the platforms, wonder if that base was affected as well...

Erwin

[Hans]

Hi

Looking at Google Earth, the base at the following location looks like the best candidate: 54°54'23.99"N 39° 1'38.66"O

Negative; that's Lukhovitsy, which is home to MiG, hence the MiG-29s on the platforms. This is no naval facility as far as I know.

A later report (in Russian; http://www.rb.ru/news/society/2010/08/03/163046.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) states the defence minister denied the loss of those aircraft, only parts (engines, aggregates etc) were destroyed.

On http://www.lifenews.ru/news/33371" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; some images can be found.

Also, both http://www.kavkaz.org.uk/eng/content/20 ... 2344.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://www.rb.ru/news/society/2010/08/03/163046.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; speak about "Shurovo District". The only Shurovo I could find, was a district of Kolomna, just south of the river, where indeed some military facilities can be found (around 55.0422 N 38.8503 E).

So, as long as no new facts surface, my guess is the initial reports were a bit exaggerated.

Regards,

Hans

[wonju666]

So, as long as no new facts surface, my guess is the initial reports were a bit exaggerated.

Regards,

Hans

http://www.kavkazcenter.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has always been the Al Jazeera of the chechen resistance so I would at least doubt the credibility of the figures mentioned in that report.

[Bram]

Evening all,

I heard some rumours that Voronez Baltimor Navy base was hit by a big fire and that around 200 aircraft where damaged or destroyed.

Has anyone heard or read more about this ?.

Regards

Bram

[Hans]

Hi,

Voronez indeed has an airbase, but this is an air force base, not navy.
And why should the navy have an airbase so far away from any seas/oceans??

Hans

[K2G]

On a Russian Forum I have read, the burned Naval base is not close to the city of Kolomna,
but the Kolomna Municipal Okrug around St.Petersburg. So Maybe Pushkin Air Base ??

Hans

[Hans]

Hi,

That crossed my mind also, but the Kolomna Municipal Okrug is more or less in the centre of St.Petersburg, so still some 25km away from Pushkin AB.
(and are there any forest fires near St Petersburg also? I thought only near Moscow, but I stand to be corrected on that)

Hans

[Gerard]

A bit of Google-ing shows that there is a town called Kolomna 113km SE of Moscow as well. That seems to be a more likely candidate.

Why does it have to be a naval AIR-base?
Defensenews.com reports that a naval support base is involved and that aeronautical equipment is destroyed.
IMO aeronautical equipment does not necessarily imply aircraft/helicopters (although they do refer to an initial tabloid report of the destruction of 200 aircraft).

Just my thoughts.....

Regards,
Gerard

[Hans]

A bit of Google-ing shows that there is a town called Kolomna 113km SE of Moscow as well. That seems to be a more likely candidate.

And that is indeed the city we were pointing to in the first posts

[Gerard]

Okay, sorry.....

but....... to add to the confusion, see this: http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-08-03/fires ... craft.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and read the headline. It states 200 aircraft.

Then watch the video on the same page: http://rt.com/v/2010-08-03/588868_planes.flv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The banner underneath in the video also states that 200 planes were burned, but listen well to the reporter


Gerard

[Richard from Rotterdam]

The story on RT News is particularly interesting as this is a Russian government-owned international TV station.

[cis]

the article at rt.com reports:
As many as 200 aircraft stationed at a Russian Navy base near Moscow have been damaged by fire amidst the continuing heat wave, a news site reports.

The mass inferno has resulted in an estimated 670 million dollars worth of damage, Russian news site Lifenews.ru reported on Tuesday, quoting a source from the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

An official investigation has been launched to establish why the base was not prepared to combat the flames, the source said. The facility reportedly had no firefighters of its own and had to rely on brigades hastily drawn from neighbouring bases, which had no chance of stopping the inferno.

Shortly after the initial report, the Defense Ministry officially refuted the information, saying that it was completely made up by the journalists and there were no navy bases in the mentioned district of the Moscow Region. However, the prosecutors insisted on the information and said that the fire took place on July 29 at about 16:00 local time at a logistics center. The fire destroyed the headquarters, the office of the financial department, 13 warehouses with various aviation hardware, and 17 open air parking lots with cars in them, the official spokesman for the Investigation Committee said. He did not mention anything about the destroyed aircraft in the list of things damaged.

In subsequent reports, the Defense Ministry admitted that there actually was a major navy base near the town of Schurov, and that a huge fire had destroyed some hardware at that very base.

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