The spectacular moment a gas pipeline exploded into a ball of flames in Russia was captured on video.
Regional social media channels published footage and photos of a fire near the village of Storozhevka, northwest of Saratov, around 3.30pm local time on Saturday (June 15).
Images show a spectacular inferno raging out of control, as giant balls of flames leap into the air.
Plumes of thick black smoke can also be seen spiralling upwards towards the sky.
Saratov’s Energy & Industry Ministry later confirmed a gas leak and fire on the Peschany Umet-Storozhevka trunkline.
This is made up of two parallel one-metre diameter pipelines serving industrial gas users in the area.
Governor Roman Busargin said the fire was caused by the extreme heatwave that is affecting the region and not by sabotage or drone attacks.
He claimed the hot temperatures had led to the pipeline losing “tightness” and this triggered the explosion.
Local reports claim that there were already concerns about the pipeline a month ago, after loggers working near the trunkline reported smelling gas.
The same trunkline suffered an explosion and fire last September near the village of Krasny Oktyabr, about 30 kilometres south of Storozhevka.
Russia has been afflicted by a series of gas pipeline incidents that have led to devastating fires.
Early in March a fire broke out at a major trunkline in Western Siberia. In May of the last year the same trunkline in the Yamal-Nenets region was hit by another gas explosion.
A defence analyst said that the frequent accidents occurring at Russian gas fields was evidence of chronic problem with crumbling infrastructure that the war in Ukraine was making worse.
With so much money being diverted to the military-industrial complex, there was less to invest in the maintenance of critical infrastructure like gas pipelines.
In a post to his X account, Tender wrote: “This accident tells us that Russia’s unbalanced expenditures into the lost war in Ukraine and ignorance for infrastructure, which was even before crumbling, will only accelerate Russia’s eventual downfall.”