The Soviet Army’s “Farewell Gift” to Kurzeme – How the Deadly “Amber” Was Born in Liepaja

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Children watch the play “The Wizard of the Emerald City” at the Liepaja Theater on January 14, 1990. “I was on the stage, playing my role, when I suddenly noticed something happening in the hall. There were children screaming, and I saw from the stage that something was on fire in the hall. It turned out to be phosphorus. In the pocket of one of the boys, the phosphorus did not burn like a normal flame, but like a self-generated flame. Guided by a blowtorch, I ran to the boy and grabbed the burning phosphorus from his pocket. Thank God, the fire was put out,” the former director of the Liepaja Theater told actor Valis Pecha.

Children from the Brocēnai school, who had previously been walking along the Liepāja seashore, were also brought to the performance. It turned out that one of the people on the beach had put what he thought was a piece of amber in his pocket, and during the performance the amber caught fire. After the accident, several more pieces of phosphorus were found in the theater wardrobe and in the school bus, which the children had collected on the beach, the newspaper Liepājas Vārds later reported.

The 12-year-old boy suffered quite extensive burns, covering 5% of his body surface, and was treated in hospital for several weeks. Pekka’s hands were also burned in the phosphorus flames, but fortunately, the burns were not too serious. The accident in Liepaja Theatre is the 18th accident to hit the people of Liepaja since 1988 when phosphorus pollution hit the city.

How the phosphorus on Kurzeme Beach was formed has been determined with great precision, it has no mythical origins, at least the names and surnames of some of the perpetrators are known.