In Angarsk, an explosion occurred at the refinery of the Angarsk Petrochemical Company (ANHK), the largest oil enterprise in Eastern Siberia, which has been owned by Rosneft since 2007. Two employees of the refinery were killed, four more were injured, Irkutsk Region Governor Igor Kobzev said on his Telegram channel.
According to the governor, the fire occurred at the process plant of the industrial site. Kobzev also said that the Baikal Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences recorded a "seismic event." Many residents mistook the explosion for an earthquake.
The moment of the explosion was caught on surveillance cameras, and a video of the ensuing fire was also published on the network.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the cause of the fire could be the "gas contamination" of the process unit. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on violation of industrial safety requirements for hazardous production facilities.
The Russian authorities do not link the incident with the recent attacks on airfields and the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials also do not comment on the incident, the video of the fire is uploaded by popular Ukrainian Telegram channels.
On December 6, in Kursk, after a drone attack, an oil storage tank caught fire near the airfield. The fire was extinguished only a day later, the governor announced the elimination of the fire. Before that, explosions occurred at two military airfields almost simultaneously.
