Safety breaches at site of Russian fire
Criminal probe into mall blaze as death toll tops 64
ASECURITY guard at the Russian shopping mall where at least 64 people – many of them children – were killed in a fire had switched off the fire warning system and fire exits from the building were blocked, state investigators said yesterday.
The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the Winter Cherry shopping centre on Sunday afternoon where a cinema complex and children’s play area were located.
Dozens of children were feared to be among the dead.
President Vladimir Putin, reelected last weekend, has yet to speak publicly about the tragedy, but spoke by telephone with the Kemerovo region governor and dispatched the Emergency Situations Ministry head to Kemerovo, a coal-producing region about 3 600km east of Moscow.
Putin expressed his deep condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those who died, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said it was trying to bring in the mall’s owner for questioning and wanted to detain a security guard who had turned off the fire alarm system after learning of the blaze.
“Serious violations [of the law] took place when the mall was being built and when it was functioning. The fire exits were blocked,” committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
She said investigators, who have opened a criminal investigation into the blaze, were looking into other possible violations too.
Four people have already been detained, including the owners and lessees of outlets inside the mall.
Emergency services said they had extinguished the blaze, but said later it had reignited in places and that rescuers were struggling to recover bodies beneath smouldering rubble.
It was unclear if any people were still unaccounted for.
Health Minister Veronika Skortsova said 11 people were in hospital, including an 11-year-old boy who was in a serious condition.
Russian media said the boy had leapt from a window and that both his parents had been killed.
‘ Serious violations took place when the mall was being built and when it was functioning