Polymer production shut down after the extreme fire at "Stavrolen"

A fire broken out at Lukoil's petrochemical plant “Stavrolen” on Wednesday has been localized. Fifteen people were injured incl. four workers taken to a local hospital, one needed intensive care.

Feb 26, 12:35 PM, EMERCOM of Russia received a call that a valve had been depressurized with the following ignition in the workshop number 2 “Ethylene Storage” at OOO “Stavrolen” in Budennovsk.

According to Emercom, there is no threat to population’s life and health. The territory of neighboring streets is not in the hazardous area.

Emercom rescuers are continuing to work at the fire scene. It was announced earlier that the fire had been claimed the highest “extreme” level. The fire area was calculated up to 100 m2. There were 108 people and 11 items involved into the fire localization.

“There is no threat to the environment as well as negative effect on people’s health at the enterprise and in the town,” – announced by LUKOIL press center. “The incident resulted in 15 people injured, four of them are hospitalized. Others received medical assistance at the first-aid post on the territory of the plant.” Earlier the local branch of the EMERCOM had announced that the fire resulted in 11 people injured including 7 workers being hospitalized.

The production was temporally stopped. “The causes of the accident, extent of damage and production re-start date will be set after the investigation involving state supervisors is finished”, - the company press center announced.

The prosecutor’s office reported that the causes and conditions of the fire are being revised. The investigation has been taken under control by the prosecutor of Stavropol Krai. The inter-district prosecutor of Budennovsk town Alexander Tilchenko is on duty at the fire scene.

This accident is not the first big one for the last years at the town-forming enterprise “Stavrolen”. In 2011 the fire broke at a workshop resulting in 5 workers being injured. The damage was estimated at 800 million rubles. The production was stopped for almost one year to liquidate the consequences of the incident.