Fire guts fuel depot in Ukraine

Hundreds of firefighters and National Guardsmen frantically tried on Tuesday to contain a massive blaze that engulfed a fuel storage facility outside Kiev.

All 17 tanks at the depot, about 25 kilometers south-west of the Ukrainian capital, caught fire after an explosion on Monday evening injuring four workers, one of them fatally.

Several firefighters have been injured or gone missing amid subsequent blasts as the blaze spread throughout the tank farm, located in the rural settlement of Kyachki, authorities said.

A neighbouring forest also caught fire and authorities were worried that the blaze could reach a similar facility nearby.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry was considering whether the fire could have been linked to safety violations at the tank farm but arson has not been ruled out.

The company that operates the facility, BRSM-Nafta, suspected it was a terrorist attack linked to several gas station explosions in the region since April 2014.