Toll climbs in Russian nightclub fire
Source: Agencies |
December 6, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PANICKED club patrons crushed each other to death in a popular Russian nightspot as they tried to flee a fast-moving fire that one eyewitness said was started by pyrotechnic fountains set up on the stage.
Officials said 109 people died as the fire tore through the popular Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm, east of Moscow, late on Friday, filling the crowded barracks-like building with thick black smoke. The investigative committee says 98 died on the spot and 11 others later died in hospitals.
Authorities said they arrested the registered owner of the club and the manager. Officials said most of the dead suffered smoke inhalation or were crushed at the exit.
"The fire spread very quickly," said Marina Zabbarova, chief investigator for the local prosecutor's office. "Panic arose which led to a mass death of people."
Television news film shot later outside the Lame Horse showed charred bodies lying in rows on the ground amid a light snowfall. Rescue workers carried bodies on stretchers into waiting vans.
Svetlana Kuvshinova, who was in the nightclub when the blaze broke out, said it started after three fireworks fountains spewed sparks, igniting the plastic ceiling.
"The fire took seconds to spread," she said. "It was like a dry haystack. There was only one way out. They nearly stampeded me."
Another patron said panic spread quickly through the crowd. "There was only one exit, and people starting breaking down the doors to get out," said a woman smeared with soot and wearing a filthy fur coat who identified herself only as Olga.
"They were breaking the door and panic set in. Everything was in smoke. I couldn't see anything."
Authorities set about identifying bodies yesterday morning, as ambulances delivered some of the more than 130 injured to planes waiting at the airport, where they were being evacuated to Moscow hospitals.
Firefighters were on the scene one minute after the alarm was called in, and they took less than an hour to put the fire out. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's top investigative body, said that there was no suspicion of a terrorist attack.
Officials said 109 people died as the fire tore through the popular Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm, east of Moscow, late on Friday, filling the crowded barracks-like building with thick black smoke. The investigative committee says 98 died on the spot and 11 others later died in hospitals.
Authorities said they arrested the registered owner of the club and the manager. Officials said most of the dead suffered smoke inhalation or were crushed at the exit.
"The fire spread very quickly," said Marina Zabbarova, chief investigator for the local prosecutor's office. "Panic arose which led to a mass death of people."
Television news film shot later outside the Lame Horse showed charred bodies lying in rows on the ground amid a light snowfall. Rescue workers carried bodies on stretchers into waiting vans.
Svetlana Kuvshinova, who was in the nightclub when the blaze broke out, said it started after three fireworks fountains spewed sparks, igniting the plastic ceiling.
"The fire took seconds to spread," she said. "It was like a dry haystack. There was only one way out. They nearly stampeded me."
Another patron said panic spread quickly through the crowd. "There was only one exit, and people starting breaking down the doors to get out," said a woman smeared with soot and wearing a filthy fur coat who identified herself only as Olga.
"They were breaking the door and panic set in. Everything was in smoke. I couldn't see anything."
Authorities set about identifying bodies yesterday morning, as ambulances delivered some of the more than 130 injured to planes waiting at the airport, where they were being evacuated to Moscow hospitals.
Firefighters were on the scene one minute after the alarm was called in, and they took less than an hour to put the fire out. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's top investigative body, said that there was no suspicion of a terrorist attack.
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