Ice in Apartments, Steam on Street: Burst Pipe Leads to Picket
A thick plume of steam engulfs the residential street.
For more than two weeks, residents of Omsk have been trying to get «Teplovaya Kompaniya» (the Heat Company) to repair a pipe rupture on Ordzhonikidze Street. People first wrote about the incident in the Telegram channel of former Omsk mayor Oksana Fadina.
Steam from the burst pipe completely obscures the roadway.
«They dug it up at the beginning of winter, fixed everything haphazardly and didn»t even bother to fill it back in. They were apparently waiting for it to happen again. It didn«t take long. Everything around is floating in a cloud of hot water. It»s freezing outside, the cloud from the hot water is all over the building. Everything around is in fog,« wrote a local woman.
The dense fog makes visibility extremely poor.
At the time, «Teplovaya Kompaniya» said repairs would be carried out after a warming trend. No exact timeline was given.
Residents say this scene persisted for a fortnight.
«Due to the need to disconnect consumers from the heating supply, repair work is planned to be carried out when favorable weather conditions are established with a stable outdoor air temperature of up to -20 degrees Celsius (-4°F).»
Out of desperation, residents held a picket today and blocked traffic.
However, it lasted about 40 minutes, just until the traffic police arrived. Each participant in the action received a fine of 1,500 rubles (about $15 at current rates). NGS55.RU was told this by one of the residents.
In the apartments, she says, it is impossible to stay due to the cold.
«I live in the middle, with a heater I can get it up to +16°C (61°F). In corner apartments, the temperature reaches down to -1 degree Celsius (30°F), everyone is freezing.»
The building manager said the accident affected many houses on Osoaviakhimovskaya and Ordzhonikidze streets, with the area flooded by hot water. This washed away the asphalt.
«The road is washed out here, everything is collapsing. Neighbors tried to do something themselves so that no one would drown or fall through.» In addition, radiators in the stairwells began to thaw, adding the risk of new internal breakdowns to the cold.
According to the building manager, before the picket there was no reaction from the management company or «Teplovaya Kompaniya». The only thing they did was pass the buck from one organization to another, but no one helped. After video of the picket was published under one of the posts, representatives of the Omsk administration wrote that all necessary work would be carried out today.
«In order not to leave consumers without heating supply, it was decided not to take the pipeline out of service. Throughout this time, the damage was under the control of specialists from »Teplovaya Kompaniya«. Today, January 26, all necessary work will be carried out at the site.»
The Investigative Committee of Omsk Region has opened a criminal case over the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements.
«According to the investigation, as a result of untimely and poor-quality repairs to the heating networks, workers of the servicing organization allowed ruptures in the hot water pipes, which led to the shutdown of heating in houses on Osoaviakhimovskaya Street and Karl Marx Avenue in the city of Omsk, which, given the extremely low ambient temperatures, created a threat to the life and health of citizens.»
Earlier we published a video from an Omsk motorist who showed that the rupture on Ordzhonikidze had created a sheet of ice. It is dangerous to drive on this road.
