16 Die In Ware House Fire

At least 16 migrant workers died in a fire
that broke out at a Moscow warehouse on
Saturday morning, Russian authorities said.
“When the fire was being put out, a room
that had been cut off by the flames was
discovered,” TASS news agency quoted the
regional branch of the emergency
ministry’s press service as saying.
“Firefighters tore down the wall and found
16 dead.”
Emergency workers arrived at the scene at
0500 GMT to put out a blaze that had
engulfed 200 square metres of a
warehouse in an industrial zone in the
Russian capital’s north.
The fire at the four-floor facility, which is
thought to belong to a local printing
company, was extinguished at around 0700
GMT, authorities said.
The head of the Moscow branch of the
emergency ministry, Ilya Denisov, told
Russian news agencies that the victims of
the fire were migrant workers from
Kyrgyzstan.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw about
three dozen migrant workers gathered
outside the warehouse, some of whom
wept as they awaited news on the people
who had been in the building when the
blaze broke out.
Denisov said the fire was thought to have
been caused by a broken lamp in a room
containing large quantities of flammable
liquids and paper products.
“The fire spread from the first floor
through the elevator shaft to the room in
which the people were killed,” Interfax
news agency quoted Denisov as saying.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on
Twitter that the people injured in the blaze
had been taken to a local hospital and that
the city would probe the incident.
“I am certain that those guilty will be found
and punished,” Sobyanin wrote.
The Moscow branch of Russia’s
Investigative Committee said in a
statement that it was still probing the
circumstances surrounding the incident.
A criminal investigation was launched to
determine whether the blaze erupted due
to arson or negligence.by chibabynaija1