TV Tower Fire Halts Reception in Russia

TV screens across much of Russia went dark Sunday as fire swept through Moscow’s central television relay tower--the world’s second-tallest structure--disrupting all national programming and intensifying the country’s sense of vulnerability to disaster.

No injuries were immediately reported, but damage to the 1,772-foot Ostankino tower, which relays the signal for all three of the country’s national TV networks, was extensive. The fire raged unchecked through the night, and by this morning, flames had consumed the top three-quarters of the needle. All three networks were forced off the air for a period of time.

It was the third national misfortune to strike Russia just this month alone. On Aug. 8, a bomb exploded in a central Moscow pedestrian underpass, killing 12. A few days later, the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea, and Russia was unable to rescue any of its 118 seamen.

“What kind of country are we living in? Something awful happens every week if not every day,” said Alexander Malikov, a 38-year-old laborer, one of hundreds of Muscovites who gathered at the base of the burning tower.

“You turn on the radio and here it is: Something has exploded, something has sunk, something has burnt. Where are we going? Last time everybody was mad at [President Vladimir V.] Putin for having no reaction [to the sinking of the Kursk]. This time we can’t even see Putin react because it is the television that got hit.”

Fire officials said the blaze appeared to have been started by a short circuit in an unmanned technical area near the top of the tower. They described the possibility of arson as slight.

Firefighters had difficulty containing the blaze, which began about 3:30 p.m. and spread out of control through the massive electric cables running up and down the needle. Firefighters cut the cables and set up an asbestos barrier at a height of about 360 feet in the hopes of finally containing the fire.

Structure Was World’s Tallest at 1967 Opening

The tower, which was the world’s tallest structure when it was completed in 1967, includes a rotating restaurant, and observation decks with panoramic views of Moscow. A large, oddly festive crowd gathered at the base of the tower as black, gray and reddish smoke poured into the sky. Helicopters buzzed through the billows, looking for people trapped on the upper levels. Reports that four people were trapped in an elevator could not be confirmed this morning.

Russia--a massive country covering 11 time zones with little infrastructure--is hugely dependent on the national networks for communication. Cable and satellite TV is available only in large cities and even there serves a very small percentage of the television audience. The disruption in programming was akin to ABC, NBC and CBS going off the air all at once--in the days before Fox and CNN, that is.

“This vacuum is really frightening and may be depressing for millions of people for whom television has basically become the only means of communicating with the world,” said Igor M. Klyamkin, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Political Analysis. “If this situation continues for several days more, it can dramatically destabilize life in the country.”

Putin summoned Cabinet officials, including the communications minister, to the Kremlin, to see if strategic reserve broadcasting channels--sort of a Russian version of the U.S. Emergency Broadcast System--could be used temporarily to relay programming.

The Ostankino tower is part of a complex in northern Moscow that also includes the main studios for the three networks--the state broadcaster RTR, the pro-Kremlin ORT network and the independent NTV network. The building housing the studios was unaffected by the blaze, and journalists continued to work.

It was difficult to ascertain how seriously the tower fire disrupted programming in regions outside Moscow. All three networks went off the air at least temporarily in the early evening. However, by late evening, substitute relays had restored broadcast feeds to regions outside the capital; only Moscow and its suburbs remained in the dark, news agencies reported.

Media Minister Mikhail Lesin estimated that it could take two or three days to restore normal television service, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

Efforts to fight the fire were apparently hampered by the height of the structure--it is nearly twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower--the nature of the blaze and the tower’s outdated fire safety systems. Because water could not be used on the electrical fire, firefighters were forced to run up and down the stairs carrying chemical extinguishers.

Sergei G. Tsarinchenko, an expert at Moscow’s Fire Safety Research Institute, told the Echo of Moscow radio station that the tower should have had automated systems.

“The reason the fire developed so fast can be explained by the fact that the tower was not equipped with up-to-date means of automatic fire extinguishing and with the most efficient means of putting out the fire in the initial stage,” he said.

One Observer Links Sub Disaster and Blaze

After the Kursk disaster, the Ostankino fire seemed to intensify a national feeling of vulnerability to misfortune. Viktor Lykov, a 46-year-old businessman watching the fire from the street, suggested they might even be linked.

“Television, especially NTV and even ORT, was very active and extremely critical of the authorities in the course of the coverage of the Kursk disaster,” he said. “It won’t really sound absurd to me if it is some kind of sabotage to take them off the air for a while. Of course it is crude, but so is the history of our country.”

At 1,772 feet, the Ostankino tower is just 43 feet shorter than Toronto’s CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the world.

The last time Russia’s national networks went off the air was in 1993, when the television complex was stormed by rebellious parliamentary leaders who opposed then-President Boris N. Yeltsin’s orders to disband. Dozens of people died in the battle.

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Sergei L. Loiko of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.