"MARI,
Cyprus | Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:39pm EDT
(Reuters) - The head of the Cypriot navy, a navy base commander and six
firefighters were among 12 people killed early on Monday by a blast at a
munitions dump which knocked out the island's biggest power station, police
said.
The firefighters were called to the Evangelos Florakis navy base on the
south coast of the island, near a popular holiday resort, to tackle a blaze at
the dump, which burned for about an hour before causing a huge explosion.
The blast almost leveled the nearby Vassilikos power plant, which
produces nearly 60 percent of the island's energy, damaged buildings in nearby
villages and rained metal on a motorway. All the victims were Cypriots.
The country's defense minister and army chief quit hours after the
explosion at the dump, which held confiscated Iranian armaments. A government
spokesman ruled out sabotage.
The blast wounded 62 people, shredded the outer walls of two
multi-storey buildings and shook olive groves and farming villages for miles
around the base.
"My tractor jumped about half a meter in the air," said farmer
Nicos Aspros, who was tilling his field at the time of the blast. "There
isn't a house in the community which hasn't been damaged."
In Mari, a village partly protected from the blast by a small hill,
windows and doors of Eleni Toubi's small home were blown out and the roof was
damaged. "It was huge. I fell out of bed and ran to check on the
kids," she said.
The Iranian armaments were confiscated from the Monchegorsk, a ship
Cyprus intercepted in 2009 sailing from Iran
to Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions on Iran.
Military sources said they believed all 98 containers of arms, which
were kept exposed in scorching temperatures, went up in the blast.
In the capital Nicosia, 65 km (40 miles) to the northeast, residents
woke to power cuts and
communications were patchy because mobile networks
were jammed.
BLAST FOLLOWED FIRE
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, gave no details of the storage
conditions. He did not comment on reports that the containers had expanded in
the heat, and that authorities had been dousing the area with water to keep
temperatures down.
He said President Demetris Christofias had accepted the resignations of
Defense Minister Costas Papacostas and army chief Petros Tsalikidis.
Cyprus stored the Iranian munitions under pressure from the United
States in January 2009. In an account of the incident disclosed by WikiLeaks,
the U.S. embassy in Nicosia described Cypriot participation in the exercise as
"half-hearted."
The island was hit by rolling power cuts as authorities tried to juggle
demand during the peak summer season. The agriculture ministry said all water
desalination plants would shut.
Britain, which has troops stationed on Cyprus, said its personnel were
on stand-by to help the local authorities.
Authorities called on Cypriots to switch off non-essential electrical
equipment and the commerce ministry urged residents to use their own generators
where possible.
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Tim Pearce "
So here we go again... Another major catastrophe on
the 11th - of July this time - and the list seems endless. I was
also informed that in 11th of July of 2002 another fatal accident occurred when
a helicopter crashed killing 5 crew members and officers one of them was the man
after whom the naval base was named, Evangelos Florakis!!!
http://www.greekembassy.org/embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=2&folder=334&article=9830
What a tragic coincidence. This time though the results were devastating
for the Cypriot economy because the navy base apart of its electrical power
installations providing electricity for the whole island, would also hold
future gas processing installations.
Many
questions remain unanswered.
Was it an accident out of negligence or someone just
pushed the self-destruction button to cover industrial espionage?
Who is benefiting from the coming delays on Cyprus’
gas exploration program?
Bear in mind that casualties were minimal in relation
to the magnitude of the explosion and the authorities received “warnings” of an
imminent explosion - a fire had occurred
half an hour before and also the containers had swollen off - .
Let us all pray for their souls and for their parents
and family who will suffer for as long as they live…
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