Signs and superstitions 

Large-scale emergencies of the last decade. Examples of man-made emergencies in Russia

An accident is a damage to a machine, machine tool, equipment, building, structure. A production accident is a sudden stoppage of work or a violation of the established production process at industrial enterprises, transport, etc. OE, which lead to damage or destruction of material assets, injury or death of people.

A catastrophe is a major accident with a large loss of life, i.e. an event with very tragic consequences.

The main criterion in distinguishing between accidents and catastrophes is the severity of the consequences and the presence of human casualties. As a rule, major accidents and catastrophes result in fires and explosions, as a result of which industrial and residential buildings are destroyed, machinery and equipment are damaged. In some cases, they cause gas contamination of the atmosphere, spills of oil products, as well as aggressive liquids. The causes of industrial accidents and catastrophes can be natural disasters, defects in the design or construction of structures and installation of technical systems, violations of production technology, rules for the operation of vehicles, equipment, machines, mechanisms. The most common causes of accidents and disasters at OE are violations of the production process and safety rules.

Causes of man-made accidents

The main causes of major man-made accidents and disasters are:

  • 1. failure of technical systems due to manufacturing defects and violation of operating modes. Many modern potentially hazardous industries are designed in such a way that the probability of a major accident at them is very high and is estimated at a risk value of 10 -4 or more (unregulated storage and transportation of hazardous chemicals leads to explosions, destruction of high pressure systems, fires, spills of chemically active liquids, emissions gas mixtures, etc.);
  • 2. human factor: erroneous actions of technical system operators. Statistics show that more than 60% of accidents occurred as a result of operating personnel errors;
  • 3. high energy level of technical systems;
  • 4. external negative impacts on energy, transport, etc. objects (shock wave and (or) explosions lead to the destruction of structures).

So, one of the common causes of fires and explosions, especially at oil and gas and chemical production facilities and during the operation of vehicles, are static electricity discharges (a set of phenomena associated with the formation and preservation of a free electric charge on the surface and in the volume of dielectric and semiconductor substances), caused by the processes of electrification. An analysis of the totality of negative factors currently operating in the technosphere shows that anthropogenic negative impacts have the main influence, among which technogenic ones predominate, formed as a result of transforming human activity and changes in biospheric processes caused by this activity. In this case, most of the factors are of the nature of a direct impact (poisons, noise, vibration, etc.). But in recent years, secondary factors (photochemical smog, acid rain, etc.) have become widespread, which arise in the environment as a result of chemical and energy interactions of primary factors with each other or with components of the biosphere. The levels and scale of the impact of negative factors are constantly growing and in a number of regions of the technosphere have reached such values ​​when a person and the natural environment are threatened by the danger of irreversible destructive changes.

Impact on nature

According to the degree of potential danger leading to such disasters in the technogenic sphere of the civil complex, it is possible to single out objects of the nuclear, chemical, metallurgical and mining industries, unique engineering structures (dams, overpasses, oil and gas storage facilities), transport systems (aerospace, surface and underwater, ground), transporting dangerous goods and large masses of people, main gas and oil pipelines. This also includes dangerous objects of the defense complex - rocket-space and aircraft systems with nuclear and conventional warheads, nuclear submarines and surface vessels, large warehouses of conventional and chemical weapons.

Accidents and catastrophes at these facilities can be initiated by dangerous natural phenomena - earthquakes, hurricanes, storms. Man-made accidents and catastrophes themselves can be accompanied by radiation and chemical damage and contamination, explosions, fires, and collapses.

Accidents at hydraulic structures (accidents at HPPs). Danger of flooding of low nearby areas due to the destruction of dams, dams and waterworks. A swift and powerful stream of water can wash away soils with all vegetation, wash away black soil. There is a risk of mudflows. With sufficiently high waves, animals on the territory of the flood site get out on a hill, they can spend a lot of time there.

Hypothetical severe accidents at nuclear power plants can lead to the formation of a "black pillar", when the emissions from the accident spread in the atmosphere and soils, plants and animals are most affected by radiation. In animals, as in humans, there are cases of radiation sickness. Also, the consequences of radiation are inhibition of vegetation growth, a decrease in animal populations in the nearby territories of the accident. The damaging factors include a shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination of the area and an electromagnetic pulse. The greatest indirect damage will be observed in settlements and in the forest. The light radiation of a nuclear explosion is a stream of radiant energy, including ultraviolet, visible and infrared luminescence.

According to the severity of damage to people from a shock wave, they are divided into: lungs with a high-speed pressure = 20-40 kPa (dislocations, bruises); average at velocity pressure = 40-60 kPa), (concussions, blood from the nose and ears); severe with a velocity head of 60 kPa (severe concussions, damage to hearing and internal organs, loss of consciousness, fractures); lethal at a velocity head of 100 kPa. The light emitted from a nuclear explosion can contribute to fire and fire storms, which move very quickly in forest dry zones.

Type of technogenic accidents

1) Transport accidents (catastrophes)

Accidents of freight trains, accidents of passenger trains, metro trains, accidents (catastrophes) on roads (major road accidents), transport accidents on bridges, in tunnels and railway crossings, accidents on main pipelines, accidents of cargo ships (on the sea and rivers) , accidents (catastrophes) of passenger ships (on the sea and rivers), accidents (catastrophes) of submarines, aviation accidents at airports and settlements, aviation accidents outside airports and settlements, ground accidents (catastrophes) of rocket space systems, orbital accidents of spacecraft

2) Fires, explosions, bomb threat

Fires (explosions) in buildings, on communications and technological equipment of industrial facilities, fires (explosions) at production, processing and storage facilities of flammable, combustible and explosive substances, fires (explosions) in mines, underground and mine workings, subways, fires (explosions ) in buildings, residential, social and cultural facilities, fires (explosions) at chemically hazardous facilities, fires (explosions) at radiation hazardous facilities, detection of unexploded ordnance, loss of explosives (ammunition)

3) Accidents with the release (threat of release) of emergency chemically hazardous substances

Accidents with the release (threat of release) of hazardous chemical substances during their production, processing or storage (burial), transport accidents with the release (threat of release) of emergency chemically hazardous substances, the formation and spread of hazardous chemicals in the course of chemical reactions initiated as a result of accidents, accidents with chemical munitions, loss of sources of chemically hazardous substances

4) Accidents with release (threat of release) of radioactive substances

Accidents at nuclear power plants, nuclear power plants for production and research purposes with the release (threat of release) of radioactive substances, accidents with the release (threat of release) of radioactive substances at nuclear fuel cycle enterprises

5) Accidents with release (threat of release) of radioactive substances

Accidents of vehicles and space vehicles with nuclear installations or a cargo of radioactive substances on board, accidents during industrial and test nuclear explosions with the release (threat of release) of radioactive substances, accidents with nuclear munitions in their storage or installation sites, loss of radioactive sources

6) Accidents with the release (threat of release) of biologically hazardous substances

Accidents with the release (threat of release) of biologically hazardous substances at industrial enterprises and research institutions (laboratories), transport accidents with the release (threat of release) of biological substances, loss of biologically hazardous substances

7) Hydrodynamic accidents

Breaks of dams (dams, sluices, dams) with the formation of waves of breakthrough and catastrophic flooding and resulting in the washout of fertile soils or the deposition of sediments over vast areas

8) Sudden collapse of buildings, structures

Collapse of industrial buildings and structures, collapse of buildings and structures for residential, social and cultural purposes, collapse of elements of transport communications

9) Accidents on electric power systems

Accidents at autonomous power plants with a long-term interruption of power supply to all consumers, failure of transport electrical contact networks

10) Accidents on communal life support systems

Accidents in sewer systems with massive emissions of pollutants, accidents in heating networks (hot water supply system) during cold weather, accidents in drinking water supply systems for the population, accidents in public gas pipelines

11) Accidents at industrial wastewater treatment plants

Accidents at wastewater treatment plants of industrial enterprises with massive emissions of pollutants.

At whatever stage of development human society is, it is always and inextricably linked with the environment. At the beginning of the 21st century, our civilization is increasingly feeling the changes on the planet, initiated by itself. The more dangerous human intervention in nature, the more unpredictable and terrible her answers become. However, the environment is far from always to blame: man-made accidents in 70% of cases occur through the fault of the person himself.

Every year the number of such events only grows, catastrophes of this nature happen, sadly, almost daily. Scientists testify that over the past 20 years their frequency has increased exactly twice. Unfortunately, behind all these figures lies a sad reality: man-made accidents are not only huge costs for eliminating their consequences, but also crippled lives and people who died or were left crippled.

Basic information

By the way, what exactly is meant by this term? It's simple: fires, plane crashes, car accidents, other events that occurred through the fault of a person. The more our civilization relies on technical means of management, the more often man-made accidents occur. This, alas, is an axiom.

Stages of formation

Every event in the world does not happen "anyhow" and not immediately. Even a volcanic eruption is preceded by a certain phase of accumulation of molten magma. So in this case: man-made disasters begin with an increase in the number of negative changes either in the industry or at a particular facility. Any catastrophe (even man-made) occurs under the influence of decentralizing, destructive factors on the existing system. Technologists distinguish five phases of emergency development:

  • Primary accumulation of deviations.
  • Initiation of the process (terrorist attack, technical failure, negligence).
  • Accident directly.
  • The action of the consequences, which can be very long.
  • Measures to eliminate the accident.

Since we are considering man-made accidents, we will analyze their main causes and predisposing factors:

  • Oversaturation and excessive complexity of the production process.
  • Initial errors in design and manufacture.
  • Deterioration of equipment, obsolete means of production.
  • Mistakes or intentional harm from service personnel, terrorist attacks.
  • Misunderstanding in the joint actions of various specialists.

Here are the main causes of man-made accidents. It must be said that even 100-150 years ago there were very few of their varieties: a shipwreck, an accident at a factory, etc. To date, the variety of production and technical means is such that a separate classification of man-made accidents was required. We will analyze it.

Transport accidents

This is the name of some extreme event involving vehicles that arose as a result of technical malfunctions or external influences, as a result of which damage to property occurred, significant damage was caused, people were killed or injured. To better understand the scale of such events, here are a few examples:

  • 1977, Los Rodeos Airport (Canary Islands). A terrible accident when two Boeing 747s collided at once. The disaster killed 583 people. To date, this is the largest and most terrible accident in the history of all civil aviation.
  • 1985, Japanese Boeing 747 flight JAL 123 crashed into a mountain due to a navigation system error. The disaster claimed the lives of 520 people. Up until today, it is considered the largest accident of a civilian aircraft.
  • September 2001, USA. The infamous plane crash into the World Trade Center towers. The exact number of deaths is still unknown.

Thus, the death of people is the worst thing that man-made accidents bring. There are examples of similar disasters in the USSR:

  • On November 16, 1967, an Il-18 crashed while taking off from Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk). All 130 people who were on board at the time died.
  • On May 18, 1972, an An-10 crashed at the Kharkiv airport, breaking into pieces during landing. A total of 122 people died. Subsequently, it turned out that the cause of such an absurd disaster was the deep design flaws of the machine itself. More aircraft of this type were not operated.

And now let's talk about what man-made accidents and disasters can threaten everyone: after all, the chance of dying in a plane crash is extremely small, which cannot be said, for example, about fires.

Fires and explosions

This is one of the most common disasters of natural and man-made origin in the world, from ancient times to the present day. Cause enormous material damage, colossal harm to nature, perish a large number of of people. Survivors experience psychological stress, which they often cannot cope with on their own, since the help of a qualified psychologist is required.

When did such man-made accidents occur in the recent past? Examples from the recent past:

  • June 3, 1989 - a terrible event in the history of our country: not far from the town of Asha, the rolling stock of two passenger trains caught fire at once. Presumably, this happened due to a gas leak on the main gas pipeline. A total of 575 people died, including 181 children. The exact reasons for what happened are still unclear.
  • 1999, Mont Blanc tunnel. The passenger car caught fire. The fire spread so much that it was possible to extinguish it only after two days. 39 people died. The companies operating the tunnel's maintenance, as well as the dead truck driver, were found guilty.

What other man-made accidents exist? Examples, unfortunately, are numerous.

Accidents with the release (or threat) of potent poisons

In this case, a large amount of substances are released into the external environment, which, in their effect on living organisms, are equivalent to strong poisons. Many of these compounds not only have a high degree of toxicity, but are also very volatile, quickly escaping into the atmosphere when the production cycle is disrupted. Such man-made accidents and catastrophes are really terrible, since a lot of people die in their course, even more remain disabled, they give birth to children with horrific genetic abnormalities and deformities.

One of the most horrific examples of this type of accident is that which once occurred in a branch of the American company Union Carbide. Since then, the Indian city of Bhopal has rightfully been considered synonymous with hell on earth. There was a catastrophe in 1984: as a result of the incredibly stupid negligence of the attendants, thousands of tons of methyl isocyanate, the strongest poison, entered the atmosphere. All this happened late at night. By morning, whole apartments and streets were littered with corpses: the poison literally burned the lungs, and people, mad with terrible pain, tried to run out into the air.

The American administration still says that 2.5 thousand people died then, only the population density in the city was then such that, most likely, at least 20 thousand died. Another 70 thousand people remained disabled. In that area, to this day, children are born with terrible deformities. What man-made accidents can compete with leaks of potent poisons?

Catastrophes with the release of radioactive substances

One of the most dangerous types of man-made disasters. Radiation not only kills living organisms, but also provokes an avalanche-like increase in cellular damage and mutations: animals and people exposed to radiation almost certainly remain sterile, they develop numerous cancerous tumors, and their offspring, even if they can be born, very often affected by genetic defects. The first technogenic accidents and catastrophes of this kind began to occur at the time when the mass operation of nuclear power plants and reactors that produced weapons-grade uranium and plutonium began.

Not so long ago, everyone followed the events in the Japanese town of Fukushima: this station, judging by what is happening there now, will poison the Pacific Ocean with radioactive water for many hundreds of years to come. The Japanese still cannot eliminate the consequences, and it is unlikely that they will succeed, since the molten one has gone far into the coastal soil. If we describe "radioactive" man-made accidents in Russia and the former USSR, then two cases come to mind at once: Chernobyl and the Mayak plant in the Chelyabinsk region. And if almost everyone knows about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, then the accident at Mayak is known to a few. It happened in 1957.

Ten years earlier, in 1947, it became finally clear that the country urgently needed a huge amount of weapons-grade uranium-235. To resolve this issue, a large enterprise for the production of nuclear weapons components was built in the closed city of Ozersk. In the process, an enormous amount of radioactive waste was generated. They merged into special "banks" located in cavities carved into the rock. They were cooled using a steel coil. By the end of 1956, one of the tubes was leaky, and the containers stopped cooling. A year later, the volume of active waste reached and it all exploded ...

Another example

But the concept of a man-made accident does not always mean explosions, fires and/or terrorist attacks. An ideal example is the American medical (!) drug Therac-25, which went into serial production in 1982. Initially, it was a triumph of American physicians: the most complex means for radiation therapy was created exclusively by means of computer calculations! Only later it turned out that the “medicine” is exclusively radioactive, there is still no exact data on the number of its victims. Considering that it was removed from production only a year later, the number of victims is certainly impressive ...

In both cases described above, the causes of man-made accidents are commonplace - miscalculations in the initial design. At the time of the creation of Mayak, people practically did not know that ordinary materials degrade at an incredible rate under conditions of increased background radiation, and Americans were let down by confidence in artificial intelligence and the greed of the heads of pharmaceutical companies.

Release of biohazardous substances

This term is most often understood as the entry into the external environment of biological weapons: combat strains of plague, cholera, smallpox, etc. It is clear that authorities around the world prefer not to talk about such incidents. Have there been such man-made accidents in Russia? It is hard to say. But in the USSR this was exactly the case. It happened in April 1979 in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg). Then several dozen people at once fell ill with anthrax, and the strain of the pathogen was very unusual and did not correspond to the natural one.

There are two versions of what happened: an accidental leak from a secret research institute and an act of sabotage. Contrary to the opinion about “spy mania” among the Soviet leadership, the second version has the right to life: experts have repeatedly noted that outbreaks of the disease covered the place of the alleged “release” unevenly. This suggests that there were several sources of leakage. Moreover, in the very "epicenter", near the ill-fated research institute, the number of cases was scanty. Most of the victims lived much further away. And further. The radio station "Voice of America" ​​told about what happened on the morning of April 5. At this time, only a couple of cases of the disease were recorded, and they passed under the diagnosis of "pneumonia".

Sudden collapse of buildings

As a rule, the causes of man-made accidents and catastrophes of this type are gross violations at the stage of designing and erecting buildings. The initiating factor is the activity of heavy equipment, adverse meteorological conditions, etc. Environmental pollution is minimal, but often an accident is accompanied by the death of a large number of people.

An ideal example is this entertainment complex in Moscow, whose roof collapsed on February 14, 2004. At that moment there were at least 400 people in the building, and at least 1/3 of them were children who came with their parents to the children's pool. A total of 28 people died, eight children. The total number of wounded is 51 people, at least 20 children. Initially, the version of the attack was considered, but everything turned out to be much worse: the designer saved as much as possible on construction, as a result of which the supporting structures were more decorative than real support for the roof. Under a relatively small load of snow, she collapsed on the heads of people resting.

Collapse of energy systems

These incidents can be divided into two categories:

  • Accidents at power plants, accompanied by a long-term interruption in power supply.
  • Accidents on power supply networks, as a result of which consumers are again deprived of the supply of electricity or other energy resources.

For example, on May 25, 2005, such a collapse occurred in the city of Moscow, as a result of which not only several large areas of the metropolis, but also many suburban areas, as well as some settlements near Kaluga and Ryazan, were left without electricity. Several thousand people were blocked in subway trains for some time, many doctors carried out critical operations literally by the light of flashlights.

What to do if you find yourself in the epicenter of a man-made disaster

And now we will consider man-made accidents. More precisely, measures to preserve it. What if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time? First of all, no matter how it sounds, try not to panic, because in this state people die first of all. Having mastered the emotions, you should try to either get out to a more or less safe place, or make your way to the emergency exit (in case of fire, for example). Avoid breathing air saturated with dust particles, gases or smoke. To this end, it is necessary to use cotton-gauze bandages or simply tear off unnecessary items of clothing, moisten them with water and breathe through these pieces of fabric. It is very important that the impromptu bandage is made from natural materials!

Don't try to be a hero by leaving the epicenter of a disaster on your own: you should cooperate with other victims and wait for the rescue teams to arrive. In the event that accidents occurred during the cold season, it is necessary to try to save energy by collecting all available food and warm clothes. If you are in an open area, attract the attention of rescuers by lighting signal fires or using special rocket launchers (if any).

Every year, dozens of terrible man-made disasters occur in the world, which cause significant harm to the world ecology. Today I invite you to read about a few of them in the continuation of the post.

Petrobrice is the Brazilian state oil company. The company headquarters is located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, a disaster at an oil refinery spilled more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) into the Iguazu River. For comparison, 50 tons of crude oil recently spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water for several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several protective barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially constructed diversion channels.
Petrobrice paid a $56 million fine to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

On September 21, 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse, France, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. Exploded 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (salt of nitric acid), which were in the warehouse of finished products. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame, which did not ensure the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people died, the total number of wounded was more than 300, thousands of houses and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left without a roof over their heads, more than 130 enterprises have actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.

On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige fell into a severe storm, in the holds of which there were more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long formed in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil fell into the sea.

Cleaning the sea and coasts from fuel oil cost 12 billion dollars, the full damage to the ecosystem cannot be estimated.

On August 26, 2004, a fuel truck carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell off a 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.
This accident is considered one of the most costly man-made disasters in history - temporary repairs to the bridge cost $40 million, and full reconstruction - $318 million.

On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovsk mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. Following the first explosion, four more explosions followed in 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost all the management of the mine died. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the HPP's hydroelectric units. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water conduits were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the engine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to the Siberian regions was disrupted, including the limited supply of electricity in Tomsk, and several Siberian aluminum smelters were cut off. As a result of the disaster, 75 people died and 13 were injured.

Damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including environmental damage. The other day in Khakassia, a trial began on the case of a man-made disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station in 2009.

October 4, 2010 in the west of Hungary there was a major environmental disaster. At a large aluminum smelter, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir of toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of caustic substance flooded the cities of Kolontar and Decever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest, with a 3-meter stream.

Red mud is a residue that forms during the production of alumina. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts on it like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.



April 22, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana, after an explosion that killed 11 people, and a 36-hour fire, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sank.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster, the platform was operated by British Petroleum.

On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan, at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following earthquakes of magnitude 9.0, a huge tsunami wave came to the coast, which damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions, melting the core.

The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. The complete elimination of the accident, including the dismantling of the reactors, will take about 40 years.

NPP "Fukushima-1"

On July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of an economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the president of the republic, Dimitris Christofias, of negligently handling the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored right on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

Destroyed Mari power plant in Cyprus

We see literally every day examples of how man-made emergencies interfere with the peaceful course of life. Catastrophes sometimes leave indelible scars on the body of our planet. And if the destructive rampage of nature is an evolutionary process that leads to natural changes in its structure and to balance, then the catastrophes generated by human activity grossly interfere with the ecosystem. It’s not even worth talking about financial costs when work to eliminate the consequences on the territory takes several years, the most important thing is that natural areas are destroyed as a result of the disaster, animals die, people die, and these losses cannot be compensated for by anything.

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Disasters: small and large

Speaking about examples of emergency situations of a natural and man-made nature in general, several specific types are usually distinguished. Depending on the number of victims, the size of the territory and the total damage in case of emergency situations of biological and social and emergency situations of a natural and man-made nature in Russia and in the world, disasters are classified by scale into:

  • local;
  • local;
  • territorial;
  • regional;
  • federal;
  • cross-border.

variety of danger. Characteristics and classification of man-made emergencies

According to general statistics, among all types of emergencies, man-made disasters account for the largest share - 89.5%. What are man-made disasters and accidents? As already mentioned, human activity is to blame for these events. As a result of the occurrence of a certain source of emergency situations, an unfavorable situation is created at the facility or any territory and there is a threat to the life and health of people, the environment, damage to the national economy and property. Sources arise at potentially hazardous objects (PHOs), technical systems that have energy, which, if released, turns into a damaging factor.

Potentially dangerous objects can be divided into six groups:

  1. biologically hazardous objects and complex technical systems, in the event of an accident on which flora and fauna may suffer;
  2. chemically hazardous facilities and complex technical systems that produce, store and process chemicals;
  3. radiation hazardous objects and complex technical systems. Among man-made emergencies, accidents at such facilities occupy a special place: they are the most extensive in terms of the area affected and make the area dangerous for living for many years. An example of this is Chernobyl;
  4. hydrodynamic objects and complex technical systems;
  5. fire and explosion hazardous objects and complex technical systems;
  6. life support facilities and transport communications. The failure of a public utility facility entails a significant deterioration in the living conditions of the population, and can lead to an environmental disaster.

Accidents at facilities happen due to the negligence of personnel or a malfunctioning system, sometimes a small flaw in the design of the enterprise leads to the death of hundreds of people. Technogenic major emergencies is a broad concept that includes such accidents as:

  • associated with all modes of transport, for example, rail, road, air, water, metro;
  • with the release of hazardous substances;
  • hydrodynamic, associated with the breakthrough of dams and locks;
  • explosions and fires;
  • accidents on utility and energy networks;
  • Emergencies at wastewater treatment plants;
  • sudden collapse of buildings.
Large fire in a shopping center in Kemerovo

Why is this happening?

Since the end of the seventies, the number of man-made disasters around the world has increased dramatically, and Russia is no exception. Despite the fact that, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region in 2017, emergencies began to occur twice as rarely, this trend does not persist in all regions. The level of risk for the population to suffer in a man-made emergency in Russia over the past decades has become higher than in developed countries. This is due to the decline in industrial development and the degradation of the economy.

Examples of causes of man-made emergencies include:

  1. human factor;
  2. exceeding the standard operating life of equipment at the facility;
  3. extreme climatic conditions;
  4. low qualification of personnel of enterprises;
  5. malfunction of electrical equipment;
  6. non-compliance of objects and territories with safety standards;
  7. violation of production technology;
  8. imperfection of the regulatory framework.

On average, every year there are about 150 man-made emergencies in Russia, in which hundreds of people die. For example, according to the statistical data table of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in Russia in 2016, 708 people died in 177 incidents, 3970 were injured. It is worth noting that about 60% of Russians live near critical and potentially dangerous objects. To date, there are 2.5 million hazardous facilities in the country, the condition of which is deteriorating every year. In many cities, the concentration of harmful substances in the atmosphere exceeds the maximum allowable concentration according to the regulations. The water quality of most water bodies does not meet regulatory requirements. To the factors contributing to the emergence of man-made emergencies, it is worth adding the neglect of industrial and technological discipline and the elementary ignorance of safety measures by the population. There have been more and more examples of what the above factors lead to in recent years.

General technogenic situation in the regions of the Russian Federation and examples of emergency situations

It is worth remembering not only about the most famous and large-scale man-made emergencies in the history of Russia, such as Chernobyl, but also about those that happened quite recently. Consider examples of emergency situations that have occurred in different regions of the Russian Federation in recent years.

Examples of emergencies in Moscow and Moscow Region

Moscow is among the subjects most vulnerable to man-made emergencies in the Russian Federation. In particular, Moscow has a huge transport network, a large number of industrial enterprises and research organizations, many of which are dangerous objects. We can separately single out the fallen level of industrial discipline in the Moscow region, the lack of an effective system for protecting the population, a system of local detection and warning.

Fire in the hostel of RUDN University

November 24, 2003
Dead: 44
Injured: 180
Reason: staff negligence

The fire broke out at night in an empty room that belonged to students from Nigeria. Several students tried to put out the fire with their own strength. Firefighters arrived at the scene when the facade of the hostel was already engulfed in flames. University staff and students jumped out of windows, some fell to their deaths, many were seriously injured.

The collapse of the roof of the water park "Transvaal"

February 14, 2004
Dead: 28
Injured: more than 100
Reason: design error

In the evening, at 19:15, the glass dome of the roof collapsed on the entire main water part of the entertainment complex, which was about 5 thousand square meters. m. The investigation under the article "Causing death by negligence" lasted 20 months, as a result, gross miscalculations in the design of the water park were revealed.

The collapse of the roof of the Basmanny market

February 23, 2006
Dead: 68
Injured: 39
Reason: misuse

The inner circular balcony was overloaded with goods, which caused one of the roof cables to break. Throughout the existence of the market, the building was operated incorrectly: the mezzanines were designed for the stall trade.

An example of an emergency in St. Petersburg

Petersburg is the second largest city in the Russian Federation and has the same negative technogenic factors as in the Moscow region. There are about 15 radiation hazardous facilities in St. Petersburg, such as the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, the Russian Research Center "Applied Chemistry" and the V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute. However, over the past 5 years and earlier, there have been no examples of large-scale emergencies, which indicates the effectiveness of monitoring emergencies and incidents.

Accident at the Baltic railway station

November 11, 2002
Dead: 4
Injured: 9
Reason: poor-quality repair, violation of safety rules by employees

An electric train without control suddenly started moving and flew under the tented part of the station at a speed of 41 km/h. The first two carriages were dragged several meters along the platform straight at people.

Examples of emergencies in the Perm region

There are several chemically hazardous facilities on the territory of the Perm Territory, as in the Novosibirsk Region, but it is worth noting a decrease in their number due to changes in technological processes at enterprises and the transition to non-hazardous technologies, which helped to reduce the risk of man-made emergencies in the Perm Territory. However, in 2017, a radiation spot was discovered in the center of Perm, the radiation level exceeded the norm by 100 times.

Release of chlorine in Bereznyaki

A leak at the Soda-Chlorate chemical plant, when a hydrogen valve froze on the hydrochloric acid synthesis column. Soon it was possible to localize the release and eliminate the danger to the inhabitants of the city. The facility was not equipped with a gas leak monitoring system and an emergency notification system: a typical example of the neglect of safety in many private industrial facilities.

Fire in the Lame Horse club in Perm

December 5, 2009
Dead: 156
Injured: 78
Reason: misuse of pyrotechnics

The fire started during a pyrotechnic show in honor of the celebration of the club's eighth anniversary. Sparks hit the low ceiling, decorated with wicker and canvas. A meter-long layer of polystyrene and foam rubber, plastic wall decoration contributed to the rapid ignition. The club instantly began a stampede, the evacuation was complicated by a narrow doorway and an abundance of furniture in a cramped room.

An example of an emergency in the Yaroslavl region

In the Yaroslavl region, the number of emergencies has been steadily decreasing in recent years. However, the scale of the consequences is steadily growing upwards. Experts make disappointing forecasts regarding the traffic situation. Nevertheless, serious work is being done in Yaroslavl related to the prevention and elimination of emergencies.

Fire in the industrial zone of Yaroslavl

On the territory of the warehouse of the industrial zone, barrels with fuel and lubricants caught fire due to the fault of a local resident who decided to set fire to garbage nearby. Acrid black smoke spread throughout the city, explosions were heard. As a result of the emergency, three buildings burned down and one person was injured.

An example of an emergency in the Saratov region

There are more than 50 potentially dangerous objects in Saratov, near which about 30% of the inhabitants live. However, accidents at radiation, fire and explosion hazardous facilities, housing and communal services systems are rare. Among the main examples of emergencies in Saratov are fires in residential, social and cultural buildings and industrial enterprises, as well as traffic accidents in the city and suburbs.

Fire on the oil pipeline in the village of Krasnoarmeiskoye

As a result of the depressurization of the main oil pipeline of Transneft, a fire broke out. The oil fire area was 7,500 square meters. m. Residents were evacuated, no one was injured. There was no pollution of the Volga River. Man-made emergencies in the Saratov region also often occur through the fault of the Togliattiazot enterprise, examples of which are regularly covered in the local press.

An example of an emergency in the Chelyabinsk region

It is included in the list of the subjects of the Russian Federation most vulnerable to man-caused accidents. As an example, in 2017, a thousand-fold excess of the level of ruthenium-106 was detected in the Chelyabinsk region.

Bromine leak in Chelyabinsk

At the railway station, glass containers with liquid bromine were broken from the collision of cars during the dissolution of the train. Then there was heating and ignition of the wooden boxes in which the containers were transported, which led to the boiling of bromine in other containers. Soon a brown-brown cloud of bromine covered the Leninsky district and Kopeysk, also geographically located in the Chelyabinsk region.

An example of an emergency in the Novosibirsk region

There are 154 potentially dangerous objects of the economy in the NSO. A cloud of chemical contamination during a man-made emergency in the Novosibirsk Region can reach up to 20 km, and about 75,000 people will be in its zone. The greatest threat is 1148 tons of ammonia and 180 tons of chlorine. Fire and explosion hazardous and railway facilities are also sources of man-made hazards inherent in the NSO.

Leakage of ammonia through the fault of "Togliattiazot" in the city of Novosibirsk

About 13 tons of ammonia spilled onto the ground as a result of a leak during cargo transportation in the Novosibirsk region. Despite the fact that it was possible to avoid damage to the life and health of local residents, significant environmental damage was caused: over time, the substance will penetrate deep into the ground and pollute drinking water sources in Novosibirsk. ToAz has repeatedly been seen in gross violation of environmental legislation.

An example of an emergency in the Altai Territory

In Altai, an effective system for counteracting crisis situations and combating man-made threats has been successfully formed, so major emergencies in the Altai Territory occur only sporadically. However, due to weather conditions, traffic accidents are not uncommon, and due to wear and tear of equipment, the risk of emergencies at housing and communal services facilities remains.

Accident on the power line in Barnaul

As a result of the accident at the facility, there was a power outage in several areas of the city. 109 thousand people were left without electricity, as well as 48 kindergartens, 32 schools and 6 hospitals. Such examples of utility failures in the Altai Territory can be seen quite often due to the climate.

An example of an emergency in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

The Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug is characterized by a dangerous technogenic situation, in particular, due to adverse climatic conditions: for example, extremely low temperatures down to -50, squally winds, forest fires, etc. Transport breaks down, flights are delayed due to weather conditions . There are 28 chemically hazardous facilities in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, in case of destruction of which an infection on a scale of 1847 square meters can occur. m. Also, 15 production facilities that use explosive and combustible substances operate without a license. This region is characterized by frequent natural and man-made emergencies.

Leakage of 170 tons of oil products at the Rosneft enterprise

On the territory of the oil depot LLC "Nizhnevartovsk oil refining association" was discovered the passage of oil products. The liquid was within the bunding of the reservoir, the problem at the facility was soon eliminated, and, according to the management employee, there was no threat to the environment. Despite this, the damage to the soil was estimated at 50 million rubles.

How it was. Examples of major tragedies

The most famous major man-made emergencies and accidents in Russia over the past few decades:

1. Catastrophe at Baikonur on October 24, 1960

An R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile exploded as a result of an unauthorized engine start. The fire killed 74 people.

2. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 26, 1986

As a result of testing a new emergency power supply system at the enterprise, a reactor explosion occurred, which generated the release of many radioactive substances into the atmosphere. A 30-kilometer exclusion zone was created around the nuclear power plant;

3. Tragedy "Kursk" August 12, 2000

A nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea during a naval exercise due to an explosion in a torpedo tube. All 118 crew members were killed;

4. The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP on August 17, 2009

Hydro unit No. 2 could not withstand the hydrodynamic loads, water poured into the engine room. As a result, all ten hydraulic units failed, 75 people died.

5. The death of the Tu-154 aircraft near Irkutsk on July 4, 2001

During the landing approach, the aircraft suddenly turned 180 degrees, after which it crashed onto the field and burned out. All 145 people on board were killed.

6. Explosions at the mine "Raspadskaya" May 8-9, 2010

An example of the world's largest tragedy at a coal mine. Explosions destroyed the ground structures of the mine and almost all workings. 91 people died.

7. The death of the ship "Bulgaria" on the Volga on July 10, 2011

Due to the overload of the vessel and the open portholes, into which water was poured during the turn, a list arose and the ship sank. 122 people died.

Path to safety. What do we have to do?

The regions cannot develop sustainably with the current level of risk: direct losses in recent years have reached 10% of GDP. It is necessary to restore the destroyed industrial safety management system, switch to new safe technologies, establish a warning system and ensure the safety of the population. For example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a project to create shelters in new buildings is already being discussed, and in 2017, System-112 was tested for a single emergency call number in the event of any incident or emergency of a man-made nature in the Rostov region.

A set of measures to prevent man-made emergencies includes the timely replacement of obsolete equipment, the placement of man-made zones themselves at a safe distance from residential areas, fire safety, medical and radiation protection, and other preventive measures. And the more efforts will be made to organize such events, the less man-made disasters await us in the future.

It is also worth tightening the requirements for technological and production discipline at facilities, because the human factor is often the cause of incidents. The same is said in the above examples of disasters. More than one human life can depend on knowledge and skills to correctly assess the situation, act, and prevent emergencies at the right time. And this should always be remembered.

Man-made disasters that have shaken humanity in recent years have left monstrous scars on Earth. They happen by tragic accident and the fault of people, but every time the world shudders from the consequences. Introducing the largest man-made disasters in the world.

The Chernobyl accident

The largest man-made disaster in the history of our country - that's for sure. $ 200 billion was spent on eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Not a single statistics gives the number of Soviet citizens affected by a radiation man-made disaster.

In 1954, the United States conducted a nuclear test in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. A nuclear charge was a thousand times more powerful than a bomb, . The man-made ecological catastrophe led to the fact that almost all living things were destroyed within a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers.

Gas leak in Bhopal


The causes of man-made disasters can be different. This is a human factor, and an earthquake, and even an accident. The worst man-made disaster in the history of India occurred in Bhopal in 1984, where a deadly gas leaked from a chemical plant.

A poisonous cloud enveloped the nearby villages, whose inhabitants woke up from a burning sensation in their throats and eyes. In the first hours, 3787 people died, tens of thousands went blind. According to unofficial data, up to ten thousand people became victims of the Bhopal disaster. The cause of the gas leak has not yet been named.

Explosion of the tanker Prestige


Technogenic environmental disasters lead to sad consequences for the biological diversity of the ocean. This is confirmed by the oil spill due to the explosion of the tanker Prestige in 2002. Then 77 thousand tons of fuel leaked into the sea. The damage from the ecological catastrophe amounted to $12 billion. Thousands of inhabitants of the deep sea died.

Piper Alpha rig fire


The consequences of man-made disasters can be even worse. In 1988, an explosion occurred on the Piper Alpha oil platform, causing the most horrific accident in the history of the oil industry. The indecisive actions of the staff led to the death of 167 people. Damage to flora and fauna could not be established.

Exxon Valdez oil spill


Man-made disasters are often associated with oil. So the next disaster for the biodiversity of the oceans was not without hydrocarbons. In 1989, 11 million gallons of oil entered the water from the tanker Exxon Valdez. $ 2.5 billion was thrown to eliminate a man-made environmental catastrophe.

Accident at the chemical plant in Toulouse


Europe steadfastly survived all man-made accidents and disasters, but an explosion at a chemical plant in French Toulouse shocked the Europeans. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate were blown up due to the negligence of the management. 30 people died on the spot, about 300 received severe burns and poisoning with toxic fumes. 185 kindergartens, 80 schools, 130 enterprises were destroyed, 40 thousand French people were left homeless.

Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP


Man-made disasters in Russia lead to horrific consequences. It is worth recalling the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP on the Yenisei River in 2009. In the history of world energy, the incident in Siberia was the most significant in terms of destruction. 75 people died. Citizens affected by the man-made disaster still remember those terrible days with a shudder.

Fukushima accident


Radiation and man-made disasters happen even in high-tech Japan. The culprit was the earthquake and tsunami. A 14-meter wave flooded four of the six reactors, knocking out the cooling system. As a result of the explosion, radiation entered the external environment. Elimination of the consequences of the accident at the nuclear power plant will take at least 40 years.

Minamata Bay poisoning