New evidence regarding the tragedy at the Cyprus Naval Base has been reported by the Cypriot press. The newspaper “Phileleftheros” published a document of the Ministry of Defense, according to which a week before the fatal explosion at the base “Evangelos Florakis” the staff officers of the National Guard General staff did not know exactly how to deal with the problem regarding the containers confiscated from the ship “Monchegorsk”.
In a general meeting on July 5th at the Ministry of Defense, the chief of Logistics Directorate, Colonel George Georgiadis, informed the Minister of Defense, the chief of the National Guard and the other attendants that on July 4th, it was noticed that one of the 98 containers had been damaged . As a result, the doors of the container had been bent and opened, without breaking the locks. The chief of the Logistics Directorate claimed that this damage was probably caused by an internal explosion of the gunpowder and consequently by the expansion of the gas.
Colonel Georgiadis answered the questions of the Minister of Defense, Kostas Papakostas and said that the gas in the container, which was had been damaged, had expanded. However, there was no way to know, in what condition the internal part of the container was, as it contained 130 metallic cans of gunpowder and, consequently, maybe some or all of them had exploded.
The destruction of the container could have been carried out by the pyrotechnists of the National Guard with instructions by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The chief of the National Guard and the Colonel Georgiadis thought that it was obvious that the container was dangerous as the damage was evident.
The Minister of Defense has asked to be informed about the progress of the agreement made in the meeting of February 7th, 2011 and to send samples of the gunpowder to chemistry laboratories of Cyprus to examine in what extent their composition had been distorted. According to the chief of the National Guard, the Logistics Directorate moved on with the procedures, in order to send 4 samples to the company Hellenic Defence Systems S.A. (EBO-PYRKAL). However, the samples were not sent because the company wanted to firstly acquire a necessary permit to import them, which had not been done until recently.
Colonel Georgiadis, had proposed to throw water on the containers, twice or three times a day, in order to deal with the high temperatures, as a possible solution. The Minister of Defense asked for official proposals, so he would be able to inform the President of the Republic, who at that time was in Ukraine for an official visit. He asked the chief of the National Guard and the committee constituted by the Colonel Georgiadis, pyrotechnists and other specialists of the National Guard General Staff, a representative of the technical services of the Ministry of Defense, representatives of the Cyprus Fire Services and the Brigadier Theofanis Theofanous to visit the Naval Base.
The aim of the Committee, was to inspect the containers on the afternoon of July 5th, and submit a report on the morning of July 6th. The report was to describe in detail the condition of the containers and to refer to the specialists’ opinion and proposals on how to deal with the situation. Finally, they went to examine the containers on the morning of July 6th, and as “Phileleftheros” notes, everyone was surprised because, apart from the damaged containers, there was burnt gunpowder. Afterwards, they discussed about possible solutions and it was proposed to build a shelter or to throw water on the containers. Some expressed their fear that throwing water on the containers would be dangerous and wondered who would take the responsibility of doing it. Colonel Georgiadis tried to assure them that there was no reason to be concerned.
It seems that the representative of the Fire Services reported that the burnt gunpowder was due to the increase of the temperature, caused by fungus caused by the humidity. They discussed throwing salt water, but the proposal was rejected by the representatives of the Fire Services, as it was considered dangerous to reduce the temperature with salt water. During the visit of the committee, a photographer of the National Guard General Staff took photos of the containers to include them in the report to the Ministry of Defense.
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