Four dead and five injured: fire in southern Urals mall
TASS
UFA, September 22. /TASS/. Four people have died and five been wounded in a fire at the Solnechny shopping and service complex in Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan in the southern Urals, an Emergencies Ministry spokesperson told TASS.
TASS has compiled the key facts about the incident.
– Information about the fire was received at 11:26 a.m. local time (10:26 p.m. GMT), according to the Emergencies Ministry.
– It said the fire broke out in a four-story brick building of the shopping and service complex.
– 47 people and 16 units of equipment were involved in the firefighting effort.
– According to preliminary data, firefighters evacuated 17 people, including one child.
– Firefighting and dismantling of structures are ongoing, the Emergencies Ministry said.
– The fire area covers 2,100 square meters, it specified.
– Firefighting is complicated by the building’s complex layout and structural features.
– Open flames at the Solnechny complex were extinguished, the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s press service later told TASS.
– According to the Emergencies Ministry, four people died and five were wounded in the emergency.
– Four women and one teenager were hospitalized at City Clinical Hospital No. 1 in the city of Sterlitamak, said Bashkortostan’s Health Minister Airat Rakhmatullin on Max messenger.
– One of the injured is in serious condition in the intensive care unit.
– Three others, including a 27-year-old woman and a 16-year-old teenager, are in moderate condition.
– According to a source in the operational services, three sisters died in the fire: two of them worked at a tailor’s shop, and the third came to visit them.
– Law enforcement officers are working at the scene, the Interior Ministry said.
– Inspectors from the traffic police and the patrol service are ensuring the safety of citizens and maintaining public order.
– The police are also assisting other emergency services in extinguishing the fire.
– The investigative and operational group of the Interior Ministry and a mobile forensic laboratory arrived at the scene.
– The Sterlitamak prosecutor’s office is investigating the fire, it said.
– A criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code (causing death by negligence to two or more persons), the Investigative Committee said.
– According to preliminary data, the fire suppression and warning systems in the Solnechny shopping complex did not activate when the fire broke out, an operational services source told TASS.
– Initial findings indicate that the interior finishing did not comply with fire safety requirements, the source said.
– The cause of the fire was preliminarily attributed to an abnormality in the electrical grid, an operational services source told TASS.
– The authorities will provide all necessary assistance to the relatives of the casualties, head of the Sterlitamak administration Emil Shaimardanov said on Max.
Fonte: TASS
