Chief Engineer Convicted in Sewage Pump Station Explosion

The Krasnoarmeysky District Court of Volgograd has delivered its verdict for chief engineer Dmitry Lebedev of OOO Concessii Vodosnabzheniya (Concessions for Water Supply LLC). He was charged in connection with an explosion at sewage pump station No. 4 (SPS-4), which claimed six lives. The prosecution had previously sought 8.5 years of imprisonment in a penal colony for the defendant, but the defense insisted on his innocence.

A series of tragic events began on the night of 5 July 2024, when an electric motor caught fire at SPS-4 in the Krasnoarmeysky district. That same day, Emergencies Ministry personnel recorded levels of carbon dioxide 58 times above the permissible limit and hydrogen sulfide 8 times above the limit at the facility. An additional fan was promptly installed to reduce the level of hazardous substances, but this did not prevent the death of foreman Mikhail Kurakin.

The following day, 6 July, Dmitry Lebedev ordered the installation of an additional exhaust system at the station. During the work to deliver and install the equipment, which involved the shift supervisor, an electric gas welder, and three maintenance fitters, a powerful explosion rocked SPS-4, completely destroying the station building. Five people were killed in this explosion.

During the court debates, the positions of the parties diverged radically. The prosecutor«s representative stated that Lebedev»s guilt was fully proven and insisted on a real prison term. Defense lawyers argued that the cause of the disaster was the high content of petroleum products in the wastewater, the multiple exceedances of maximum permissible concentrations, and violations of official instructions by station personnel on the day of the incident.

The verdict was announced at 10:00 on 2 February. The court sentenced Dmitry Lebedev to 3.5 years of forced labor. However, the state prosecutor did not appear at the hearing for the announcement of the verdict.