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Eastern Europe
March 30, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Russian President Putin promises justice after Siberian shopping mall blaze tragedy
bne IntelliNews
Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to western Siberia early on March 27 to meet with the rela- tives who lost family members in the blaze that swept through the Winter Cherry (Zimnyaya Vishn- ya) shopping mall in the regional city of Kemerovo over the weekend.
Russia is in shock as details emerge of the fire that has killed 64 people, according to the latest official report, including 41 children, making this the worst tragedy of its type in Russia’s history. Twenty people were rescued from the blaze and about 100 were evacuated. 15 people remain in hospital, but are reportedly in a stable condition.
The government’s Investigative Committee has been tasked with finding out the cause of the trag- edy, and one of the owners of the mall has been arrested on criminal negligence charges. A secu- rity guard that turned off the fire alarms has also been taken into custody.
In a brief statement the Investigative Commit- tee said that at this point the possibility of the fire being caused by an electronic short circuit is the “priority version,” but the work is still ongoing.
"Either this is spontaneous combustion due to poor electrical equipment, which was closed, or
a version that we believe in least, that the fire was cause by an open flame," Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the Investigative Committee, wrote on the Kremlin website. He noted that the exact cause will be determined when the investigation is concluded.
At least 64 people died in a blaze that swept through a Siberian shopping mall on March 25
Bastrykin also confirmed that many of the doors in the cinema that was next to the source of the fire were locked, including the fire exits. Bastrykin was scathing about the role of the mall’s staff.
"The staff fled and abandoned the victims to the mercy of parents and children. Those workers who were supposed to be responsible for security, for organising the evacuation, they all fled first. We have practically no losses from the staff of the shopping centre,” Bastrykin said.
The regional governor said the families of the vic- tims will receive RUB1mn ($17,500) each in com- pensation in what is becoming standard practice for the Russian government in the aftermath of particularly big tragedies.
Confusion still surrounds what started the fire, though the Russian authorities have ruled out ter- rorism as a cause.
Russian Minister of Emergency Situation and Civil Defence Vladimir Putchkov said: "A terrorist act is off the list of causes ... The investigators are prob- ing into all the possible causes except the terrorist act," reports Tass.
However, local residents claim that up to five times more people died in the inferno than are estimated in the official figures – somewhere between 300 and 570 according to various state- ments. Moreover, the majority of the dead were children, according to the locals.