In the daily drone of news it flitted by as an unfortunate act of God of one sect or another: at least 15 people died Monday in a blast at a major naval base in Cyprus. The blast was so fierce it blew out windows and doors of a tourist town two miles away along the Mediterranean island nation’s southern coast. Initially, authorities said a brush fire that reached into an explosives depot triggered the blast. “We can’t assess the extent of the damage, but it’s a biblical disaster,” spokesman Costas Gavrielides told the London Telegraph.
But now that the smoke is clearing, we are learning much more:
– The blast involved 98 barrels of confiscated Iranian explosives, largely gunpowder, that had been intercepted en route to Syria. It’s not sure yet if the blast triggered a resulting brush fire, or a brush fire triggered the blast.
– The barrels had been sitting in an open field at the Evangelos Florkis naval base for two years in temperatures that sometimes topped 100 degrees.
– The explosion killed the commander of the Cypriot navy, Andreas Ioannides, and the commander of the base, Lambros Lambrou.
– The Cypriot government had repeatedly ignored warnings that the explosives storage at the base was not safe.
– Nikos Anastassiades, head of the opposition Democratic Rally party, blamed “unprecedented criminal errors” for the blast.
– A government spokesman claimed the Cypriot government had asked the United Nations to take the explosives off its hands and send them to Germany, Malta or UN peace-keepers in Lebanon, but that the request had been refused.
– But cables unearthed by WikiLeaks revealed that the island’s political leaders had spurned offers of help in getting rid of the explosives from Britain, Germany and the U.S.
– Before the blast, Defence Minister Costas Papacostas said that the material was “completely safe” and could be stored in residential areas without risk.
– Papacostas has now resigned.
– So has Brig. Gen. Petros Tsalikides, the head of the Cypriot National Guard, which failed to act despite a flurry of earlier, smaller explosions at the base.
– The blast destroyed the island’s main power plant, 300 yards away, causing widespread blackouts and threatening the nation’s economy.
– Thousands of citizens have been marching in Nicosia, the capital, blaming the government for letting the disaster occur. Police fired tear gas at the protesters, and arrested 20 as they stormed the presidential palace Tuesday.
– Authorities have ruled out sabotage as a cause of the blast. Stupidity, however, remains under active investigation.
