The fire broke out overnight from Thursday to Friday. It touches a shopping center and extends over 7000 m2. One person died.
Russian emergency services announced on Friday December 9 that they had brought a large fire under control which ravaged a shopping center in the suburbs of Moscow during the night, killing one person. “The open fire was brought under control“, said the Ministry of Emergency Situations in a press release, specifying that 130 firefighters were deployed in “conditions of high temperatures and dense smoketo finish extinguishing the fire under the rubble.
For its part, the Russian Investigation Committee indicated that a security guard had died in the fire, confirming information from the Russian press. The fire was started, according to the first elements of the investigation, by “welding work that did not comply with safety rules“.
Earlier, Russian media had raised the possibility of a criminal act, before this track was dismissed. “The track of a (voluntary) firing is the least probable“, a representative of the prosecution told the Russian press.
The fire occurred in the Mega Khimki shopping center in the suburb of Khimki, north of the Russian capital, seven kilometers from Sheremetyevo international airport. “Due to the collapse of the roof, the fire instantly spread to a wide area“, had specified earlier this Friday the relief on Instagram, evoking the difficulty of the firefighters to work on the spot.
According to the Investigation Committee, the fire affected 7,000 m2, while the shopping center is 17,000 m2. Videos posted on social media showed a massive fire as people fled a burning building towards a parking lot.
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