News - Yerevan State University explosion, fire occur in compressor room next to chemical materials’ storage room

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia provided details of the explosion and fire that occurred Friday morning in the building of the Faculty of Chemistry of Yerevan State University (YSU). Accordingly, a report was received at 9:37am that an explosion and a fire had occurred in the basement of the building of YSU Faculty of Chemistry. The explosion and the fire had occurred in the compressor room, which serves also as a dressing room for employees. The adjoining room is a storage room for chemicals, where, however, there was no fire. Chemists conducted an inspection on location, but no dangerous gases were found in the air. One employee died on the spot, and three people were taken to the hospital, including a patrol officer who was hospitalized with smoke inhalation; he is in satisfactory condition. The fire was extinguished at 10:23am. Household items and wooden structures were burned in the compressor room. The investigators of the Investigative Committee of Armenia are carrying out an investigation at the scene of the incident. The National Center of Burns and Dermatology in Yerevan informed Armenian News-NEWS.am that two people—Seyran Bichakhchyan, 70, and Aharon Hakobyan, 65—were brought to them. They were bandaged there and transferred to Armenia Medical Center. They had polytrauma, multi fragmentary injury, third-degree chemical burns Another injured, a police officer, was taken to Heratsi hospital.