Chapter 4. Explosions and fire Key words and terms:

Contain Fire Fire-fighters Break out	Go off Reinforce Precaution Put out	Resume Banks Deluge guns Rupture
Disrupt Flames	Extinguish Blaze	Bursting disk Interlocks
Landmark	Soar	Cut down on
Helicopter Water mains	Engulf Proximate cause	Fix

Text 15. Fire-fighters Battle Moscow Tower Blaze

The Ostankino tower was completed in 1967 and heralded as a feat of Soviet engineering. It lost its mantle as the world's tallest structure when Toronto's CN Tower was constructed. The tower in northern Moscow is built from reinforced concrete and the interior has elevators at its central core and a single emergency stairwell nearby. Other parts contain radio and television transmitters. It is surrounded by a huge area of parkland. The Ostankino television studios which house Russia's principal TV stations are also nearby.

The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon, 28 August, briefly blacking out national television stations which use it as a relay station. Transmissions to the regions were resumed by satellite later, but Moscow's 10 million viewers were left with blank screens.

Smoke and flames billowed from Moscow's landmark Ostankino TV tower, which soars 1,772 feet into the sky - nearly twice the height of the Eiffel tower in Paris. A fire brigade helicopter circled the building, which was illuminated against the night sky by search lights.

Flames engulfed the top section of the tower, from near the summit to beneath its 1,095 feet high Seventh Heaven rotating restaurant, which was evacuated soon after the fire broke out.

Russian firemen battled to contain flames threatening to engulf the world's second highest tower and to rescue four people trapped in an elevator 890 feet above the ground early on Monday. Three of them were fire-fighters and one was a woman who operated the elevator. The power went off when the four were at a height of 271 meters on their way up to deliver supplies to fire­fighters, the fire brigade said. They risked the elevator instead of taking many flights of stairs.

Fire-fighters were cutting burning cables, leading up and down the building, in an effort to stop the flames spreading further.

Fire engines massed around the base of the tower. Thousands of spectators who gathered at the site were pushed back some 700 yards amid fears that the thin spire at the peak of the building might collapse. The smoke pouring out of the building diminished in the early hours of Monday.

Moscow mayor told reporters that an exclusion zone near the bottom of the tower would remain in force throughout Monday as a precaution. He said experts thought it unlikely the tower would topple. Fuel from three nearby petrol stations was being drained.

RTR state television, briefly blacked out by the fire on Sunday, said a short circuit in banks of electrical equipment at the top of the tower was the fire's likely cause. Russian television was disrupted for weeks with only one of stations functioning in the capital.

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences according to the text.

1) The Ostankino tower was the world's tallest structure until ...

2) Three firemen and an operator were trapped in the elevator because ...

3) Fire-fighters were cutting burning cables in an effort to ...

4) Thousands of spectators who gathered at the site were pushed back in case ...

5) According to the reports, the fire's likely cause was ...

Exercise 2. Choose the extra word in each line.

1) engulf, contain, bury, cover, envelop

2) elevate, lift, pick up, improve, raise

3) harden, strengthen, billow, reinforce, support

4) fall, evacuate, collapse, topple, founder

Exercise 3. Use the word in capitals to form a word that fits in the space in the sentence.

1) They were bored with work and wanted to do something ___________ (complete) different.

2) An electric bulb proved the only______________ (illuminate).

3) After the continual draught there was a serious ___________ (threaten) of famine.

4) ____________ (Deliver) of the emergency kits should be made promptly.

5) We cannot entirely ______________ (exclusion) the possibility of power cuts under these unfavourable weather conditions.

6) The endangered area will be closed for a week as a _____________ (precaution) measure.

7) He is _____________ (report) not intending to return to his country.

8) The strike caused widespread ______________ (disrupt) to train services.