Russian Nightclub Fire Kills at Least 111 People, Injures 123
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The death toll from a fire at anightclub in the Russian city of Perm rose to 111, with 123injured, as President Dmitry Medvedev declared tomorrow anational day of mourning.
Of the injured, 27 are in Perm hospitals, while 96 weretransferred to hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg, anofficer at the Emergency Ministry’s Perm office said bytelephone today. The toll is being updated regularly, he said.
The fire broke out in the city’s popular Lame Horse club onDec. 4 after an explosion and a fire that took an hour toextinguish, the ministry said in a statement on its Web site.State television Vesti said today the death toll was at 112.
About 250 people were in the club to mark its eighthanniversary when the fire broke out. Vesti broadcast videofootage of the burning ceiling made by one of the club-goers andcustomers rushing to the exit in panic.
The fire started in the ceiling and quickly spread acrossthe club, Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu told Medvedev in atelevised video call yesterday. “At the start of the fire,lights went out, there was panic,” he said.
Law enforcement officials ruled out a terrorist act, sayingthe fire was caused by the violation of instructions on handlingfireworks.
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told Medvedev on thesame call that no trace of explosives was found at the club.Many died of smoke suffocation, he said. Investigators plan tobring charges against four people suspected of being responsiblefor the fire, RIA Novosti state news service reported today,citing Marina Zabbarova, head of the investigative department ofthe Perm prosecutor’s office.
Train Bombing
The accident in Perm happened a week after the bombing ofthe Nevsky Express train between Moscow and St. Petersburgkilled 26 people in what authorities said was Russia’s worstterrorist attack outside the north Caucasus region since 2004.
Perm, a city of 1 million people, is located 1,150kilometers (720 miles) east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains thatseparate Europe and Asia.
Medvedev ordered General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika toinvestigate the accident. Investigators detained all themanagers of the club, while the club’s owner, who is also amongsuspects, is in a hospital, RIA Novosti said, citing Zabbarova.
Medvedev said the party organizers had “neither brains,nor shame” and will be “punished to the full extent.” Shoigusaid the club had been told twice to improve fire safety.
Fire safety is lax in Russia with many cases of firesbreaking out due to negligence in public venues. In July 2008, aMoscow court convicted two bartenders of fire-code violationsafter 10 people died in a nightclub in March 2007.
Bartenders tried to put on a “a fire show,” lightingalcohol in an ashtray while waitresses danced on the bar at the911 VIP club in the Russian capital. The court sentenced thebartenders to 3 1/2 years in a minimum-security prison.
To contact the reporter on this story:Lyubov Pronina in Moscow at lpronina@bloomberg.net;Maria Ermakova in Moscow at mermakova@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 6, 2009 05:23 ESTSource: Bloomberg
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