Fire in Massive Moscow TV Tower
M O S C O W, Aug. 27 -- Firefighters are struggling to contain flames leaping a quarter-mile above ground from the blazing upper half of Moscow’s gigantic Ostankino television tower.
An electrical fire broke out in the tower this afternoon, driving three television channels off the air and forcing the evacuation of visitors from a popular tourist restaurant near the top of the tower.
Three elevators in the tower fell from a height of 1,509 feet because of the fire, igniting another fire on the ground floor, Russia’s Tass news agency said.
No casualties are being reported.
According to some reports, the fire was still spreading rapidly at midnight, spreading from near the top of the tower to below the Seventh Heaven restaurant, covering more than half of the building’s total height.
“We have never seen anything like this,” Mikhail Serikov, the head of a team of firefighters, told Reuters. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
But Russian news agency Tass reported that the fire had stopped growing by late evening. “The fire spreading in the Ostankino television tower has been stopped. There are no casualties or missing as of 20:45, Moscow time,” Tass announced.
Tass also quoted Minister for Emergencies and Civil Defense Sergei Shoigu, just before midnight local time, saying the situation was under control.
A number of television and radio stations went off the air, and other communications such as pager services were also disrupted.
The tower also links Russia’s police, ambulance and fire services. President Vladimir Putin, who made highly public statements about the fire throughout the evening, summoned Communications Minister Leonid Reiman to the Kremlin to discuss ways to restore television service and keep the fire and ambulance communications running.
Escape From Elevator?
There have been conflicting reports of people who may still be trapped in an elevator, amidst fears that the top of the 1,772-foot tower could collapse. A Reuters reporter in Moscow said a total of four people — three firefighters and an elevator operator — were trapped in an elevator,
