Four dead, five injured in shopping complex fire in Sterlitamak

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.

Circumstances

- 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.

Death toll and injuries

- 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.

Investigation and response

- 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.