Power cut to Russia’s main naval base home town after pylons collapse

MOSCOW, Jan 25 – The home town of Russia’s main naval base was forced to switch to emergency generators after aging power lines collapsed during bad winter weather, cutting electricity and some heating, Russian officials said.

The closed town of Severomorsk, the headquarters of Russia’s Northern Fleet on the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea, is home to Russia’s most important naval command. It controls Russia’s biggest fleet of ballistic missile submarines and extensive arsenals of nuclear warheads, missiles and repair yards.

Andrei Chibis, the governor of the Murmansk region, said on Friday night that the city of Murmansk and Severomorsk had their electricity supplies cut due to the collapse of pylons. Local officials said there were still some houses without electricity and heat in Severomorsk on Sunday.

Five pylons, two of them almost 60 years old, collapsed about 7 km (4 miles) from Murmansk on Jan. 23, according to local media. Two dated from 1966, two from 1982 and one from 1988, according to Severomorsk online news site.

The ships of the Northern Fleet docked in Severomorsk were switched to autonomous power mode to free up capacity, Vladimir Evmenkov, the head of Severomorsk, said.

Russia’s so-called “closed towns,” usually around major defence or nuclear installations, have much stricter controls than most other places. Entry is controlled and special permissions are needed to visit. 

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Heavens)