Drills: Power Industry Workers Handled the Emergency
The Kys-2025 drills, organized by the Department of Emergency Situations in conjunction with local executive bodies, civil defense services and municipal utilities, took place in Almaty.
The theme of the drills was “Training of management bodies and forces of the state civil defense subsystem for actions to prevent and eliminate emergencies in the winter period of 2025-2026”. The aim was to practice the interaction of various services and check the readiness of equipment and personnel to eliminate the consequences of emergencies, including accidents at life support facilities, fires, heat supply failures and rescue operations.
Practical activities were held at four training sites. One of them was the fuel oil tanks and gas pipeline of the CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev. According to the training scenario, a fire broke out in a 2,000 m3 fuel oil tank during repair work, resulting in burns to a worker. The heat also damaged the gas pipeline fittings.
An emergency response team led by Rinat Maksutov, deputy head of the station’s turbine shop, was sent to extinguish the ‘fire’ in the fuel oil storage tank and carry out emergency repair work on the gas pipeline at TPP-1.
“We have 21 people in our emergency rescue team, five of whom participated in the exercises,” said Rinat Kuanyshbekovich. Immediately after the fire was contained, we began restoring the steam cushion on the fuel oil tanks. This is necessary to maintain the temperature of the fuel oil supplied to the boilers. Overall, I am satisfied with the results of the drill: our team worked clearly and cohesively.
All participants in the drill performed their duties well. One of the power engineers who took part in the drill was Markhabat Izizov, a 5th grade crade crane operator in the turbine shop.
“We were given the task of quickly repairing the damaged pipe, and it was also necessary to quickly close the valves,” said Markhabat Makhmutovich. “We had simple tools here – a grinder, a shovel, and a crowbar. But they were enough to get the job done. In general, I know this work and this area well, as I have been working in the brigade for about 10 years. This helps in such situations. And my total experience in the industry is 23 years.”
Tatyana Ayupova, a mechanic responsible for the operation and repair of gas equipment in the water heating boiler room and gas oil facilities, was given a difficult task: to become the victim, i.e. the worker who suffered burns.
Tatyana Ayupova is a 4th grade specialist who has been working at CHPP-1 for 15 years and is very well aware of the dangers that can arise when working at the plant. She believes that the most important thing here is to comply with safety regulations. This simple rule allows many dangers and risks to be avoided, but emergencies at such serious production facilities as thermal power plants can never be ruled out, so you always have to be ready to act in extreme conditions.
According to the training scenario, I was an injured worker. But being in the position of a victim, I was able to observe how our guys work,’ Tatyana Anatolyevna shares her impressions of participating in the training and her assessment of her colleagues’ work. The guys quickly and carefully picked me up, laid me on a stretcher and very carefully carried me to a safe place. And you have to understand that they had to carry the stretcher over two large pipes! They did everything just right. I can say that our guys did a great job!
In addition to power industry workers, the city’s civil defense services also took part in dealing with the aftermath of the simulated accident at CHPP-1. A total of 47 people and 11 pieces of equipment were involved in putting out the ‘fire’ at this facility.
A total of 163 people and 45 pieces of equipment were involved in the Kys-2025 drills. Following the events, the organizers noted the high level of preparedness of the city’s services to respond to winter emergencies.