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Twelve victims of Pinskdrew blast transported to Minsk and Brest hospitals

The death toll in an explosion that occurred in the chipboard shop of woodworking company ZAT Pinskdrew in the Brest region on Monday has reached three people.

A 39-year-old man died in the intensive care unit of the Pinsk Central Hospital overnight, Andrey Navumchyk, deputy physician-in-chief at the hospital, told BelaPAN.

Up to 29 people are believed to have been in the shop when the blast occurred at around 1 p.m., causing a fire that was put out only in two hours.

One worker was killed at the scene, and the body of one more man was found by rescuers in the rubble later in the day. One victim was an automatic line operator born in 1984 and the other a mechanic in his early 50s.

Eighteen people were rushed to the Pinsk Central Hospital.

According to Mr. Navumchyk, there was one woman and 17 men among the victims admitted to the hospital shortly after the blast.

Fifteen of them were put into intensive care. At night, five were transported to the Brest Regional Hospital and seven people more to the burns unit of the Minsk First Aid Hospital.

Two young men with serious burns remained in the Pinsk hospital’s intensive care unit on Tuesday morning. Their condition was severe.

Two men and one woman were in the trauma and surgery unit, diagnosed with burns and fractures, and one more woman, who applied for medical assistance on her own on Monday evening, stayed in the neurosurgical department. The condition of the latter worker, aged in her mid-50s, was described as satisfactory.