Baku metro accident

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In the Metro accident in Baku on 28 October 1995 fell subway - train of Baku Metro , the subway in the Azerbaijani capital Baku , after a short circuit in a tunnel in fire . 303 people died.

Starting position

The trains are supplied with energy via a power rail . The tunnel between the Ulduz and Nariman Narimanov underground stations was equipped with a controllable ventilation system, but had a relatively narrow tunnel profile, 5.6 m high and 5 m wide.

The train affected consisted of five cars that were around 30 years old. Around 90% of the material used is said to have been combustible. It left the Ulduz subway station in the north of Baku at around 6 p.m. during rush hour with probably more than 1000 passengers on the way to the next, Nariman Narimanov .

the accident

Immediately after the train left Ulduz underground station and entered the tunnel, a technical defect caused a short circuit in the electrical system in the rear of the fourth car of the train. The chairman of the commission of inquiry set up after the disaster, the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Abbas Abbasov , later described outdated technical equipment from the time of the Soviet Union as the cause of the disaster. The electric arc created during the short circuit was perceived by the passengers as a lightning bolt and ignited flammable parts of the vehicle . The fire quickly spread to the fifth car.

The short circuit also caused the train, which had driven about 200 meters into the tunnel, to stop there. The fire particularly spread to plastic parts in the car. At first, the passengers in both the fourth and fifth cars noticed smoke, which very quickly filled the tunnel and released lethal amounts of carbon monoxide .

Because the doors were stuck in the fourth car, the travelers had to leave it through a transition to the third car. Panic broke out.

The driver informed the train control center of the incident by radio and asked that the electricity in the tunnel be switched off. But that didn't happen immediately, so a number of people were killed because they came into contact with the power rail in the tunnel.

After about 15 minutes the ventilation system switched to "venting", but this resulted in the smoke being blown through the part of the tunnel through which people were trying to escape.

consequences

303 people died and another 265 (according to another source: 168) were injured. According to the morgue , 303 dead were brought in there, and the independent Turan news agency reported 337 victims. A later report names a deviating 292 deaths. 245 of the victims - including 28 children - were found on the train where, after passing out from inhaling the carbon monoxide, they were panicked or trampled down. 40 bodies were recovered in the tunnel.

A two-day state mourning was declared. It was the most serious underground accident in the world. Previously, this was the 1918 Malbone Street subway accident in New York City, which left 93 deaths. The most serious tunnel fire hit the Paris Metro in 1903 , when 84 people died in the Metro accident at Couronnes station .

Any rumors that it was sabotage or an attack were denied by the state. Remnants of explosives were not found.

The Azerbaijan Supreme Court sentenced two metro employees, including the Ulduz metro station supervisor , to 15 and 10 years in prison for gross negligence .

literature

  • IJ Duckworth: Fires in vehicular tunnels . In: 12th US / North American Mine Ventilation Symposium 2008.
  • Edward Mickolus and Susan L. Simmons: Terrorism, 1992-1995: a chronology of events and a selectively annotated bibliography . Westport 1997, p. 880.
  • Phil Reeves: Old wiring caused worst metro disaster . In: The Independent of October 30, 1995.
  • Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .
  • B. Wahlstrom: The Baku underground railway / metro fire . In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tunnel Incident Management. Korsor, Denmark, 13-15 May 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andersen.
  2. ↑ Atwell.
  3. ↑ NN: Subway Fire Kills 300 .
  4. ↑ NN: Subway Fire Kills 300 .
  5. ↑ Semmens, p. 225.
  6. ^ NN: Azerbaijani Court .
  7. ↑ Duckworth; Andersen.
  8. ↑ NN: Subway Fire Kills 300 .
  9. ^ NN: Azerbaijani Court .
  10. ↑ Andersen.
  11. ↑ Reeves.
  12. ↑ Andersen.
  13. ↑ Atwell; According to Reeves, the president, Heydər Əliyev , is said to have expressed himself accordingly.
  14. ↑ Mickolus, p. 880.
  15. ^ NN: Azerbaijani Court .

Coordinates: 40 ° 24 ′ 47 "  N , 49 ° 53 ′ 17"  E