Nairit chemical plant fire largely extinguished – Ministry

Firefighters continued throughout the night to battle a massive fire that erupted at Yerevan’s Nairit chemical plant yesterday morning. The Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations said late in the evening that the fire was already under control and would not spread to other parts of Nairit.

The fire was reported to have engulfed storage tanks filled with combustible chemical waste.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that the fire has been largely extinguished in three of the four ferroconcrete containers in a workshop where ethynol, a highly hazardous substance, is stored.

Seven firefighting crews are still working at the Soviet-era rubber plant which has stood idle for the last several years.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS