Kirovsk Russia experienced a large avalanche that was intentionally triggered around 10:15PM on Thursday night. ย
The avalancheย smashed windows in town, ripped down trees, and killed one person. ย
โThe blast was so powerful and so loud that I even jumped up. ย Literally within three minutes, all of the Kukisvumchorr district was covered by a white cloud.โ –ย local woman, Anastasia Demidova, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda
Kirovsk is located in the Arctic Circle in the Khibiny Mountains in Russia.
The Flash Nord News Portal reported that residents of the Murmansk region received no warning about this intentionally triggered slide. ย The slide was triggered in order to mitigate risk of an even larger slide later on in the season.
The one known victim of the slide was actually one of the employees of the local avalanche safety service. ย In addition to this consequence of the slide, there are also several reports of avalanche debris within peoples’ apartments after shattering the windows. ย People, cars, trees, and the town in general was devastated after this lack of communication between avalanche safety crews and residents.
The district of Kukisvumchorr was particularly affected by the slide.ย The effects of this slide will be felt by the region for quite some time as many of the residents will by attempting to dig out their vehicles from avalanche debris- even in parking garages.