Yerevan, Armenia (AP) — A fireplace at a military base in Armenia killed 15 infantrymen searching for heating gas early Thursday, the Defense Ministry said.
The chimney temporarily swept an army barracks in the village of Azat in eastern Armenia’s Gegharkunik province.
Authorities said seven were injured and three of them remained in serious condition.
Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan told a cabinet assembly that the chimney burst because it used gas to force a stove in violation of chimney protection rules. He said the unit’s commander and a dozen other officials were also burned.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also fired Gen. Vagram Grigoryan, who in response to an organization of forces in the area that includes the unit where the fire occurred.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the fire.
The Gegharkunik region borders Azerbaijan, which is locked in a decades-long standoff with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of Armenian-backed ethnic Armenian forces since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
In six weeks of heavy fighting that began in September 2020, Azerbaijan’s army defeated Armenian forces and pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to settle for a Russian-brokered peace deal in November of that year. 155 infantrymen on both sides.