On April 28, 2025, a major fire broke out in a military unit near the village of Bolshaya Tura in the Karymsky District of the Zabaikalsky Krai, engulfing warehouses with fuels and lubricants (F&L) and other supplies. As reported by the Chita.Ru publication, the fire was reported in the afternoon, when it began to spread rapidly due to strong winds. By evening, the fire was localized, but the fight against residual sources, including burning rubber, continued with the support of aviation, a fire train, and local Emergencies Ministry forces. The incident caused concern among local residents, recalling the tragedy of 2014, when a fire at the same warehouses led to ammunition explosions and human casualties.

According to the head of the Karymsky district, Aleksey Sidelnikov, the fire started in the technical zone of the military unit, covering about two kilometers of territory. "I'm here now, gathering forces, putting it out. Military warehouses - there are reserves of fuel and lubricants, some other supplies," he told a Chita.Ru correspondent. Sidelnikov noted that the military limited the access of civilian firefighters to the territory of the unit, which complicated the extinguishing. Strong wind contributed to the spread of the fire, and thick smoke led to the closure of roads by traffic police patrols. The entrance to Bolshaya Tura was temporarily closed to ensure unimpeded passage of firefighting equipment.

Significant forces were involved in extinguishing the fire, including aviation from the Russian Emergencies Ministry. According to Chita.ru, Mi-8 helicopters and an Il-76 aircraft, which was carrying out a water drop, took part in the operation. By the evening of April 28, the head of the village of Bolshaya Tura, Svetlana Zimina, reported that the fire had been localized:

"There's not much left, the rubber is burning at the edge. Everything is under control, all the heads are here, the fire chief, the head of the district."

A fire train was called to the village to put out the fire, which underlines the scale of the fire. The Russian Emergencies Ministry confirmed the localization, but there was no information about the complete elimination of the fire by the morning of April 30.

Local residents, frightened by the smoke and memories of the 2014 disaster, began to leave the village on their own. Then, on April 29, 2014, a forest fire spread to ammunition depots, causing a series of explosions that killed 11 people and evacuated more than a thousand residents. The damage from that incident amounted to millions of rubles, and traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway was suspended.

In April 2025, the Zabaikalsky Krai faced an unprecedented fire hazard. As of April 26, 33 forest fires were raging in the region, covering an area of ​​257 hectares, making the region the leader in Russia in terms of the scale of fires. The main burden fell on the Tungokochensky, Chita and Karymsky districts. Since the beginning of the month, regional authorities and the Ministry of Emergency Situations have been fighting the fire, bringing in additional forces, including 968 employees of Avialesookhrana and two Il-750 aircraft that arrived on April 76. The introduced federal emergency regime emphasizes the criticality of the situation.