The team of Vestnik Kavkaza is grieving and expressing condolences to Baku residents on behalf of all Russians in connection with the tragedy in the Caspian Sea. We are grieving together with you on this tragic day!
The extinguishing of the fire, which started on a platform in the Guneshli oil field in the Caspian Sea on December 4th, is continuing now. It is known about two people, who died in the tragedy, 29 oil workers are considered as missing. 8 are in hospital, 22 people received outpatient treatment and were discharged from hospital. 32 people were rescued. The team of Vestnik Kavkaza expresses condolences to the families and relatives of those who were killed, as well as victims of this serious incident, and the people of Azerbaijan.
Today is a mourning day in Azerbaijan according by order of President Ilham Aliyev. All entertainment events have been cancelled.
Condolences were expressed by many leaders of states: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Many countries proposed their help in order to extinguish the fire and search for missing workers. However, the first vice-president of SOCAR Khoshbakht Yusifzade said that Azerbaijan intended to extinguish the fire on its own. "We have all the possibilities to extinguish the fire. The main task is to find the missing people,’’ Trend cites him as saying.
Baku relies on the Caspian states’ help during the search operation. According to SOCAR vice president Halik Mammadov, the Azerbaijani authorities sent a request to Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan, as bodies of missing oil workers may be in the territorial waters of these countries. Malik Mammadov said that the appropriate request was sent to the border guards of the Caspian states. "All management departments, including SOCAR are in the sea,’’ Interfax cites the vice-president of SOCAR.
One of the rescuers said that weather conditions were very difficult during the operation: waves were very high at the time of the gale force wind.
‘‘Unfortunately one rescued worker died after he was pulled out," rescuers said.
"29 people spent about 12 hours in the second boat, which was stuck in the platform. They were luckier as they were managed to be saved,’' he told.
‘‘3 people didn’t have time to sit in a boat and stayed at the burning platform. They hid in one of remote premises," an eyewitness of these tragic events said.
‘‘The searches for 29 missing oil workers will be continue at night,’’ SOCAR vice president Halik Mammadov said. It will be carried out only by ships, helicopters during night time. The extinguishing of the fire is over. It is expected that the fire will be completely extinguished by the tomorrow’s morning.
SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev and the company's management are at the scene now.
Mammadov also noted that there was found a part of a boat during searches in the sea. It was reported that the boat was designed for 42 people. Stocks of food and water are enough for four days, but unfortunately, one of the boat smashed on a pier.
The Vice President stressed that the families of victims and injured, as well as missing oil workers will receive compensation.
As for the causes of the tragedy, according to Khoshbakht Yusifzade, the version of sabotage is not considered as verisimilitude. "We are discussing the version of an explosion of a gas pipeline. There is very high pressure in the pipeline, which didn’t sustain blows of waves," the first vice-president of SOCAR said.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan published the video of the operations on searching missing people and extinguishing the fire.
