Hundreds of kilometers is not a distance for those who nevertheless climbed into this wilderness. But what a fishing! There were many who wanted to. No one could have imagined that two tragedies, one after the other, would put a barrier on the way to Lake Surzi …
Victim of the unknown …
The path is not short. But on Surzi there is untouched nature and a chance to bring a rich catch: burbot, whitefish, soroga, vendace, grayling, pike - you can still look for such an assortment in one small reservoir (7.5 by 4.5 km). Therefore, the locals also liked the lake, and inveterate fishermen from afar came here regularly.
At the end of October 2001, eleven people arrived at once from the nearest village of Safonovo, where there are only a little more than two hundred inhabitants. Fishing is not fun here, but mainly fishing. In addition, for the Safonovites it is almost there - only 65 km. No problem for the Buran snowmobile!
Surzi is already covered with ice in some places. In it here and there they noticed frozen fish - this had never happened before. And near the Pyzhik island in the middle of the lake, they found an oily film on the ice …
But the visitors did not attach any importance to all this, and immediately got down to business - the northern day is short. The fishing was a success, but on the first evening the fishermen felt unwell. Moreover, almost all of them have the same symptoms: weakness, headache, shortness of breath, aches, fever … I had to finish my fishing trip before the deadline and return home. Upon his return, one of the fishermen, 35-year-old Vladimir Belugin, died suddenly.
Since the cause of death, as well as the deterioration of the state of health of the others, was poisoning with an unidentified substance, a representative commission came to investigate. The doctors examined the fishermen, and the ecologists examined Lake Surzi and its surroundings. No leads! All indicators of air, soil and water are within acceptable limits. Fishing was allowed, taking into account the state of health of the injured Safonovites. As they say, the incident is over. And they didn't notice anything else alarming.
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Attack three
However, in September of the following year, 2002, three fishermen from the neighboring Lekushonsky district came to Syurzi - father and son Mikhail and Alexey Shitikovs and their friend Veniamin R. Three more from Syktyvkar joined them on the lake. True, they decided to fish in different areas so as not to interfere with each other.
Problems began with the first trio. When the nets were set, Shitikov Sr. - aged men - developed a fever in his chest, his arms and legs became numb, his body seemed to be not his own. But when they settled in an old hut, where visiting fishermen usually spent the night, they seemed to let go.
Four days later, Alexey and Veniamin went to shoot the nets. On the lake near Pyzhik, the malaise is akin to that of Shitikov Sr., both felt at once - they barely had the strength to get to the shore by boat. Less than two days later Benjamin died. His body, as well as both Shitikovs, were taken by helicopter to Arkhangelsk: the deceased - to the forensic medical examination bureau, the injured - to the regional hospital.
The cause of death was officially named, as in last year's case with Belugin: poisoning with an unknown substance. The Shitikovs were found to have kidney, liver and muscle damage. No signs of infection.
It is characteristic that three Syktyvkar fishermen also felt similar symptoms, albeit to a lesser extent. By the way, a dog died in one of the newcomers - the cause of death remained unknown. There are no complaints about the fish caught in the lake. The catch turned out to be quite high quality.
… and non-drinkers too
If the first death in 2001 could still be attributed to an accident or a confluence of unclear circumstances, then the second is already a cause for alarm and serious investigation. It was joined not only by doctors and environmentalists, but also scientists, prosecutors, and criminologists. Various versions of the causes of the emergency were put forward, but all were carefully studied. Traditionally, they considered the one that concerned the drinking of alcoholic beverages. However, the investigation in both cases categorically denied this version, since those who do not drink alcohol at all also became seriously ill.
There are no harmful industries that can affect the environment in this region. Therefore, man-made poisoning also disappeared. And the water itself is the purest with a barely noticeable bluish tint - even take it and drink it! True, one of the samples showed an excess of the maximum permissible concentration of fluorine, but the presence of this element, even theoretically, could not lead to such tragic consequences …
The version of rocket fuel contamination was not discounted - the Plesetsk cosmodrome is located in the same Arkhangelsk region, and the spent stages of spacecraft are falling in the Mezensky region. But from Surzi it is at least 40 km. In addition, the most dangerous component of rocket fuel, heptyl, could not cause such transient fatal poisoning. And no traces of this toxic substance were found.
"Hello" from UFOs?
One of the versions that is difficult to verify is the presence of so-called black holes at the bottom of the lake. Perhaps poisonous gases burst from them to the surface from time to time? They attracted specialists from several metropolitan research institutes, they carried out sonar and radiation research in parallel. Moreover, for accuracy and objectivity, the samples taken were analyzed in several laboratories.
The result is the absence of any alarming deviations. Although there are still a few particularly deeply located areas that could not be reached. Again, if the emissions are short-term, then the observation should be long-term. However, the fact that the water is absolutely transparent allows us to exclude this version: in case of gas breakthroughs from the bottom, in any case, it would become cloudy - particles of sand or silt would certainly be found during analysis.
Attention was drawn to the fact that the emergency occurred on the lake in the fall, when the water level rose. Therefore, the temporary flooding of a certain poisonous object, which poisoned Surzi, was not excluded. But, firstly, he was not found - in any case, he had to "fonit" on the shore. Secondly, some impurities should have remained in the water samples, but they are not.
Geologists have debunked the assumption of the presence of geopathogenic zones. Although by themselves they could only cause a deterioration in well-being, but not poisoning …
Are we dealing with a UFO? It is known that the northern latitudes are the place where they were most often met. Was the poisoning of the fishermen the result of exposure to the aliens' life support or some kind of emissions from their aircraft? An attempt to influence the body of fishermen is not excluded in order to scare them away as uninvited witnesses of the appearance of UFOs on the steel of a distant lake. Questions remain here.
Today this reservoir is among the most studied in the country. Meanwhile, all this information did not make it possible to clarify the issue of the causes of death of two people and the disease of more than ten. Alas, this time the quantity did not turn into quality: the abundance of data did not allow getting closer to the truth.
… Will the mystery of Lake Surzi be solved? If so, at what cost? So far, these questions remain unanswered. Maybe, when the situation clears up and the danger is excluded, fishermen and fans of ecological tourism will be given the green light?