UFA, 5 June 2019. /Bashinform News Agency, Azat Gizatullin/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.
Yesterday, exactly 30 years passed since the moment of the largest railway, technological disaster in the history of Russia and the USSR.
June 4, 1989, at 01.15 am Ufa time a powerful gas explosion thundered and a giant fire broke out when two passenger trains were approaching the 1710th kilometer of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
There were 1,284 passengers (including 383 children) and 86 members of train and locomotive crews in trains No. 211 Novosibirsk-Adler (20 carriages) and No. 212 Adler-Novosibirsk (18 carriages). 11 carriages were derailed by a shock wave, seven of them were completely burned out.
The remaining 26 carriages were burned outside and inside.
According to official data, 575 people died (according to other data - 645), 623 became disabled, receiving severe burns and injuries. 181 children died in the Ulu - Telyak tragedy.
Yesterday, the head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, took part in mourning events at the site of the disaster, where a memorial was erected in 1992. He laid flowers on an eight-meter stele and talked to the relatives of the dead and injured.
The head of the Association of victims and relatives of those killed in the Ulu-Telyak catastrophe, Viktor Khramov, thanked the leadership of the republic, the Iglino district and the residents of Bashkortostan for honoring the memory of the dead and keeping the memorial in a proper state.
Victor Khramov noted that the memory of this tragedy should remain for centuries, and relatives would always remember the assistance and compassion shown by the inhabitants of Bashkortostan. The leadership of the republic, enterprises, organizations, public formations, residents did everything possible to save people injured in the accident.
In those days, for the first time, teleconsultations of doctors in real time were organized for the first time in Ufa. Direct teleconferences between local healthcare institutions, Moscow clinics, and the US medical centers were organized. During satellite communications sessions, patients who were affected in this terrible disaster were consulted. It was the first large-scale telemedicine project in Russia.
But, despite all the measures taken, the number of dead inexorably grew. Some 70 percent of the train passengers died on the spot, and about 30 percent of the participants in that tragedy were hospitalized in Ufa hospitals. Over 700 people were admitted to Ufa clinics with burns and injuries.
And now every year mourning events take place at the site of the tragedy, and all passenger and cargo trains passing this section of the railway give a long, drawn-out whistle in memory of those killed in the Ulu-Telyak accident.
