Club owner, 3 others jailed as Russian fire casualties climb
Source: Agencies |
December 7, 2009, Monday
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The owner of the nightclub where at least 112 people died in Russia's worst fire in decades was jailed yesterday pending the results of an inquiry as shocked and grieving relatives began to bury the victims of the disaster.
About 130 remained hospitalized, many in critical condition, with injuries from the early Saturday blaze, which witnesses said was sparked by onstage fireworks that shot into the twig ceiling of the Lame Horse Club in the industrial city of Perm in the Ural Mountains.
The Federal Investigative Committee said the club owner, Anatoly Zak, had been detained, along with its unnamed executive director and artistic director, and Sergei Dergunov, a businessman hired to install pyrotechnics on the night of the blaze.
The committee's Website said they were suspected of negligence causing the death of two or more people and violating fire safety rules.
Leninsky District Court in Perm decided to hold the quartet for the length of the federal investigation.
The hearing was closed to the public.
Sergei Dergunov, the man who provided the fireworks, was ordered detained for the duration of the investigation, his lawyer Yekaterina Golysheva said outside the court.
Mourning residents were indignant over "negligence" on the part of the club's management, which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the club managers had been fined twice in the past for breaking fire-safety regulations.
Russian clubs and restaurants often cover ceilings with plastic insulation and willow twigs to create a rustic look, one of many uses of combustible materials in buildings by businessmen who bribe officials to look the other way.
Nadezhda Zhizhina placed flowers on the icy ground outside the Perm City Morgue in memory of her 21-year-old son, Sergei.
She said she wasn't expecting the compensation officials have promised to other victims' relatives because Sergei earned pocket money at the club as an unofficial administrator.
"I can't imagine what to do," Zhizhina said, weeping. "He was a golden boy."
She said Sergei's wife, Yulia, was eight months pregnant.
The fire has shaken this city of 1 million-plus, mobilizing even those who didn't lose relatives - such as Marina Dryonina.
"This is nothing but criminal negligence ... a terrible tragedy for our town," she said.
Darya Kochneva, an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman, said a man flown to a Moscow hospital had died, from horrific burns bringing the toll to at least 112.
Many victims were trapped in a panicked crush for emergency exits as they tried to escape the flames and thick black smoke.
Enforcement of fire-safety standards is poor in Russia and there have been killer blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and nightclubs in recent years.
The nation records up to 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.
Medvedev demanded that lawmakers draft changes to toughen the criminal punishment for failing to comply with fire-safety standards in the wake of the blaze.
Today has been designated a national day of mourning, with entertainment events and TV programs canceled.
About 130 remained hospitalized, many in critical condition, with injuries from the early Saturday blaze, which witnesses said was sparked by onstage fireworks that shot into the twig ceiling of the Lame Horse Club in the industrial city of Perm in the Ural Mountains.
The Federal Investigative Committee said the club owner, Anatoly Zak, had been detained, along with its unnamed executive director and artistic director, and Sergei Dergunov, a businessman hired to install pyrotechnics on the night of the blaze.
The committee's Website said they were suspected of negligence causing the death of two or more people and violating fire safety rules.
Leninsky District Court in Perm decided to hold the quartet for the length of the federal investigation.
The hearing was closed to the public.
Sergei Dergunov, the man who provided the fireworks, was ordered detained for the duration of the investigation, his lawyer Yekaterina Golysheva said outside the court.
Mourning residents were indignant over "negligence" on the part of the club's management, which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the club managers had been fined twice in the past for breaking fire-safety regulations.
Russian clubs and restaurants often cover ceilings with plastic insulation and willow twigs to create a rustic look, one of many uses of combustible materials in buildings by businessmen who bribe officials to look the other way.
Nadezhda Zhizhina placed flowers on the icy ground outside the Perm City Morgue in memory of her 21-year-old son, Sergei.
She said she wasn't expecting the compensation officials have promised to other victims' relatives because Sergei earned pocket money at the club as an unofficial administrator.
"I can't imagine what to do," Zhizhina said, weeping. "He was a golden boy."
She said Sergei's wife, Yulia, was eight months pregnant.
The fire has shaken this city of 1 million-plus, mobilizing even those who didn't lose relatives - such as Marina Dryonina.
"This is nothing but criminal negligence ... a terrible tragedy for our town," she said.
Darya Kochneva, an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman, said a man flown to a Moscow hospital had died, from horrific burns bringing the toll to at least 112.
Many victims were trapped in a panicked crush for emergency exits as they tried to escape the flames and thick black smoke.
Enforcement of fire-safety standards is poor in Russia and there have been killer blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and nightclubs in recent years.
The nation records up to 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.
Medvedev demanded that lawmakers draft changes to toughen the criminal punishment for failing to comply with fire-safety standards in the wake of the blaze.
Today has been designated a national day of mourning, with entertainment events and TV programs canceled.
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