An explosion tore through a seven-story residential building in Odesa's Primorsky district on Tuesday evening, setting the block ablaze and bringing floors down inside — and as firefighters worked in the wreckage, a second explosion went off, injuring the very people sent in to help.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service (DSNS) says the first blast hit the building on the evening of October 20. Flames poured from the upper-floor windows as aerial ladder trucks sprayed water into the fire, while inside, firefighters picked their way through smoke-filled rooms where floors had collapsed into heaps of rubble, broken walls and hanging wires.
It was during that firefighting operation that the second explosion struck. Three DSNS rescuers and an ambulance medic were injured — four emergency workers wounded in all. DSNS photographs and video from the scene show medics loading an injured man onto a stretcher and carrying casualties out to waiting ambulances.
Acting Deputy Mayor of Odesa Oleksiy Botetzat told Suspilne that, on preliminary information, four emergency workers were injured during the response and were given medical assistance at the scene. No deaths have been reported.
What set off the first explosion is still unknown. Botetzat said the cause is currently unknown and will be determined by the State Emergency Service once the main firefighting operation is complete. Officials have described the first blast only as the explosion of an unknown object, and they have not attributed it to a strike.
As crews worked through the night, a DSNS psychologist comforted shaken residents outside the building — families wrapped in coats and towels, watching their homes burn — while exhausted responders rested in turns before going back in. The DSNS published an 18-photo record of the operation on Wednesday morning, showing the fire-gutted facade, blown-out windows and the search through the collapsed interior.
The building, a historic block with arched windows in the city's Primorsky district, was left with its upper floors gutted and still smoking as the operation continued. Investigators are expected to establish what exploded once the site is safe.
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