Explosion at the Severomorsk military base. (3 photos)

On May 17, 1984, an explosion occurred from an unextinguished cigarette butt at a military base in the city of Severomorsk.

In a short time, almost half of the naval stock of strategic missiles, torpedoes and mines was destroyed.

There was real panic on the streets. From the recollections of an eyewitness:

Women were running through the streets with children in their arms, many half-dressed, in dressing gowns and slippers; mixed with them were men, some in uniform, which gave the picture a particularly eerie drama. We climbed ladders (in North Sea style, ladders) leading up to the hills. Someone fell, they picked him up, grabbed him by the arms, and dragged him. Cars were streaming out of the city in a continuous stream. Crowded to capacity, they still stopped and took away the children, whom the mothers literally pushed into the arms of others. Screaming, crying, swearing - and the roar and howl of the Okolnaya “volcano” drowning everything out. A black mushroom with an orange-purple cap, standing up to its full gigantic height, froze for a moment, swung towards the city, but then began to slowly settle towards the tundra and ocean.

There were victims. They say about at least two people - an officer who tried to extinguish the flames, and a sailor who remained at his post near the burning warehouse.

The force of the explosion can be seen in the photographs.