Eight firefighters have died in a major fire in the east of Moscow, a spokesman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry told Reuters on Friday. A criminal investigation was launched to determine whether the blaze was caused by arson or negligence. The owner of the warehouse eventually handed himself in to the authorities.
Their bodies were discovered after contact was lost as they fought to extinguish a huge blaze that started on Thursday evening at a plastics depot, the emergency services ministry said.
“The corpses of eight colleagues have been found in the main area where the search was located. Until the end there was hope that they would be alive. But due to the intense fire, the high temperatures and the thick smoke the firefighters were unable to get out,” it said.
The emergency workers were among the first to arrive at the scene and helped evacuate 100 workers from the warehouse located towards the eastern edge of the Russian capital. They were battling flames on the roof of the building when it collapsed, the emergency services said.
“The firefighters died doing their duty like heroes,” Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, tweeted. “I send my condolences to their loved ones. The city will give all necessary aid to the families of those who died.”
Prosecutors launched an investigation into possible fire safety violations, the Moscow prosecutor’s office said.
Officials said the blaze – which tore across an area of 4,000 sq m (430,000 sq ft) – was eventually extinguished at 7.44am local time on Friday.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent said the smell of burning spread across areas of eastern Moscow close to the blaze.
The fire is the latest to claim lives in the Russian capital, where safety standards are often lax. In August, 16 migrant workers mostly from the former Soviet Kyrgyzstan died in a fire at a print warehouse.
