An Inevitable disaster : the causes and aftermath of the major fire in 1993 at the Kamski car plant in Russia.

Includes bibliographical references

A presentation is made of a system approach to one of the worst mass fires in the history of Russian industry which occurred at the Kamski car assembling complex (KamAZ) on April 14, 1993 and lasted about a week. Though there were no fatalities or even seriously wounded victims, the incident inflicted huge economic damage, resulted in major costs, and disrupted the technological and marketing links of the plant with hundreds of supplies and customers. In this respect, the case may be treated as an industrial crisis. It is argued that what was responsible for the incident were a mixture of internal or human-organizational factors, and external or antecedent ones. It is indicated that the latter are deeply rooted in the history of the economic development of the former Soviet Union which is closely related to the political system and the state monopoly of industrial property. In addition, new and original estimates of the full direct and indirect economic losses are presented. Also, a detailed picture of the organized response, including the mass media coverage, is given as well as a description of the recovery activities