The Russians are well underway with celebrations across large parts of the country.
Every year cases are made about this year’s Russian knots. And it is easy to criticize all the inventions of the Russians.
But it will take a lot to beat what happened in Trondheim 30 years ago.
It must have cost the trade stand up to NOK 15 million.
Fishing trip in kumlok
In Trondheim in 1994, a Russian knot went fishing in a manhole cover.
And the Russian Tormod Skrogstad wanted to try this, on his way home from a nachspiel.
– I wanted to streamline that process a bit, so I thought I should smoke the fish out.
On the night of 13 May 1994, Tormod stood by a manhole cover at the top of Nordre gate in Midtbyen in Trondheim.
– I lit some newspaper and threw it into the basin.
When the Russian knot was completed, he and his friends were going home to sleep for a few hours.
– After I’d been on and off, I put the lid back on.
And then Tormod didn’t think anything more about it.
Evacuated the entire Midtbyen
A little in the morning, smoke rises from several manhole covers in the center of Trondheim. At the same time, Tormod and his friends relax in a park to recover from the night’s party.
– I wake up to the expression happening. Massive deployment of ambulance, fire and police across the Elgeseter bridge.
Large parts of Midtbyen were evacuated and the shops had to close due to a gas leak. Several were sent to hospital.
– I remember very well that I thought “poor people who have caused this board”. Because it was quite massive at the time.
– Everyone who knows me knows that it was me who was behind it. It has become a widespread nachspiel story. I have been to the nachspiel and heard others take credit for it.
From being called the “sewer king” after the Russian knot in 1994, Tormod works today as an investor.
The civil defense’s alarm system was used for the first time in peacetime. It warned people to stay away from the center and listen to the radio.
– Originally, this was meant for war situations, but in recent years we have said that we can also use the siren system in peacetime when it is necessary to warn people.
This is what Bjørn Gran in the directorate for social security and preparedness said after the incident. They were afraid of the risk of explosion and that people would ingest the gas.
– I had no idea that something like this could happen from the little thing I did, says Tormod.
But it did.
Tormod threw the burning newspaper into the basin and set fire to a fiberglass cloth that is around the sewer line.
See the Dagsrevyen from 13 May 1994 here.
– The fool, I caused this
The police quickly received a tip that it was ruses who were behind the gas leak in Trondheim.
– One of the messages that came to us says that it could be drugs.
This was told by the police chief in Trondheim, Per Martin Marum, on Dagsrevyen on 13 May 1994.
Tormod received the same message when he arrived at the roadblocks in central Trondheim and met the police.
Tormod has a clear piece of advice for this year’s party: – Don’t seek out any rowdies and fanfare, but enjoy yourself and enjoy yourself. As long as you don’t want to do anything wrong, it’s fine.
Photo: private
The police said that it was most likely Russ who had been holding a Russian knot at the manhole cover at the top of the northern street.
– Then it sunk in: “Damn, I’m the one who caused this.”
Tormod knew that up to 20 people had been admitted to the hospital for possible poisoning.
– I became a nome. It’s not that much that sinks in right away, adds Tormod.
But luckily everyone was fine.
– The measurements made this afternoon say there is no danger of an explosion and there hasn’t been either, said the police chief at the time.
For Tormod, on the other hand, it was a rebuke and a fine.
– I was called on 16 May, three days later. I was called in on the right and after much back and forth it was NOK 1,000 in a simplified proposal.
It was in this cesspool that Tormod threw down a piece of burning newspaper. The screenshot is from Dagsrevyen 13 May 1994.
Photo: NRK
Published 13/05/2024, at 08.45