A massive army munitions depot fire and exploding ammunition forced the evacuation of thousands of villagers in east Ukraine, DPA reported according to report for Channel 5 television . The nighttime blaze near the town Lozova in Ukraine's Kharkiv province had produced hundreds of detonations so far, threatening firefighters with shrapnel and making quick control of the fire impossible, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said. Two storage buildings the Soviet-era artillery shell and rocket dump were burning, and 120-millimetre mortar rounds were detonating "almost every minute" said Viktor Baloga, a government spokesman. Emergency workers evacuated more than 6,500 residents of Lozova and surrounding villages five kilometres or less from the fire's epicentre. One military service member was injured as a result of the fire. Windows were broken throughout Lozova and houses damaged as far as three kilometres from the fire, an army spokesman said. A massive government effort to bring the blaze under control was in progress. Some 200 vehicles and 1,000 firefighting personnel drawn from both the military and civilian sectors were participating, said Volodymyr Shandra, Ukraine Emergency Situations Minister. An investigation into the fire has begun but it was too early to determine its cause, he added. The Lozova base contains between 94,000 and 105,000 tons of military munitions, the Interfax news agency reported.
