JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fire in Tbilisi destroyed the Children’s World and Gold Market shopping centre. Reports said that 31 fire-fighting units tackled the blaze, one of the biggest in Tbilisi. The shopping mall covered an area roughly the size of two football pitches. It is still unclear what caused the fire.
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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
DEC. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ruslan Smykov, a presenter with the Kazakh TV news channel First Channel Eurasia, resigned after he broadcast a fake news interview with a Russian TV host. It’s unclear why Mr Smykov broadcast the fake interview but the incident does highlight the weak editorial control in the Kazakh media.
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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)
DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nine oil workers were missing after an oil rig partially collapsed during a storm in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea that killed at least one person, Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR said.
The collapse came almost exactly a year after a fire on two Azerbaijani oil platforms killed 30 oil workers in the worst offshore accident in the energy sector since 167 people died in the Piper Alpha fire in the North Sea in 1988.
The latest accident will embarrass SOCAR and Azerbaijan’s oil sector because it had promised to improve safety after the deaths in 2015.
Much of the infrastructure that SOCAR uses in the Caspian Sea is decades old and Azerbaijan has been heavily criticised for not updating and modernising its structures.
The oil industry is also vital to the Azerbaijani economy. It has been under pressure to maintain oil output despite the aging infrastructure and aging fields.
SOCAR officials said that emergency services are still looking for the nine missing oil workers.
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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)
NOV. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Seven migrant workers from Tajikistan died in a fire in the metal container they were using as their living quarters on a construction site in Siberia, media reported.
Investigators said that the cause was likely to be a short-circuit in the electric heater which was warming the container. The container had been lined with wood and felt to keep out the severe cold.
This is the third major accident involving migrant workers this year. In January a roof collapsed onto a sewing workshop in Moscow, killing at least 12 migrant workers and in September a fire in a printing workshop killed at least 16 women workers from Kyrgyzstan.
Remittances from Russia is a vital source of income for countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, especially for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fire in a residential building near the Almaty Towers complex killed seven people, mostly Kazakh university students. Investigators said that the likely causes of the fire were either a fault during ongoing construction works or an electrical short-circuit. One welder and six students died in the accident. The Almaty Towers complex is located near the circus in the western part of the city.
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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)
SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A gas leak caused an explosion at an oil platform in the Guneshli oil field, off the coast of Baku.
Although nobody was injured or killed, the fire at Platform 19, will once again raise concerns about safety at oil platforms in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea, less than a year after at least 31 rig workers were killed at two other rigs in a storm.
SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company operated the platform.
It said that the fire had burned for a full day before it was brought under control by fire-fighters.
SOCAR said that all 49 workers were evacuated during the fire.
Azerbaijan’s oil industry is still trying to recover its credibility after the rig fire in December, the deadliest since the Piper Alpha fire in the North Sea killed at least 167 people in 1988.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
AUG. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fire in a printing warehouse in northeast Moscow has killed 17 migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan, the Russian authorities said.
The fires once again raise concerns over safety standards for migrant workers from Central Asia in Russia. In January, 12 migrant workers died in a clothing factory in Moscow.
Emergency services said that the fire at the printing warehouse was started by a faulty light on the first floor. Smoke spread quickly through a lift shaft to the fourth floor where the workers were sleeping. Most of the workers died in their sleep through smoke inhalation and another died later in hospital.
Unconfirmed reports also said that the factory mainly hired women.
Russia remains a major source of employment for workers from Central Asia and the S.Caucasus although there have been accusations of substandard working conditions.
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(News report from Issue No. 293, published on Aug. 29 2016)
JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A blast at an oil storage facility in Turkmenbashi in western Turkmenistan killed seven people, local media reported. A government official later denied the report but it would be unusual for a report of this nature to be erroneous. If it is confirmed, the incident will be a blow to the reputation of Turkmenistan’s main Caspian Sea port.
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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)
APRIL 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A crew member died after a Russian oil tanker caught fire in the southern section of the Caspian Sea, between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Coastal guards from the three littoral countries joined forces to extinguish the fire and rescue the rest of the crew. The tanker was not carrying oil at the time of the accident. Last December, a fire at offshore oil and gas platforms killed more than 30 Azerbaijani workers.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A fire at the Abu Dhabi Plaza, an 88- storey tower being built in central Astana, destroyed five of its floors. No-one was injured. Fires have hit the building several times this year. UAE investors are funding the $1.6b tower which was expected to be finished this year and will be the tallest in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)