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The fire broke out early this Saturday in the Russian city of Kostroma, 330 kilometers from Moscow, after a man fired a flare gun at the ceiling, according to the TASS news agency.
A tragic morning. A fire swept through a nightclub in the Russian city of Kostroma, killing 13 people and injuring several others, according to local authorities.
Sergei Sitnikov, governor of the Kostroma region, confirmed that 13 people died in the fire and another five were slightly injured. Kostroma, a riverside city of 270,000 inhabitants, is located 340 kilometers north of Moscow.
According to the authorities, the fire occurred at dawn after someone used a flare gun. The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti detailed that shortly before the fire there was a fight in the establishment where it operates a cafeteria, a restaurant and a huge dance floor, but it was not clear if it had to do with the flare gun.
One of the witnesses, Olga Dimitriu, whose flower shop also burned down because it was located in the same building, said that people were shocked and that many did not know what had happened as they continued to wait for their missing friends to come out of the burning building.
“I cried for the people, because there were people who were close by, and one group said that four of theirs hadn’t come out, another group said that two of theirs hadn’t come out,” Dimitriu said. “They were so shocked they didn’t even notice,” he added.
“The fire came from the roof, because when I arrived there was no fire in Flora. The roof was on fire. And all this, everything burned a lot in 2 hours, everything was on fire,” he said.
The authorities denied the statements of an emergency source, who previously reported the existence of at least 15 deaths from the event.
As a result, five people died of poisoning and the rest under the rubble of the establishment, whose roof collapsed during the fire, which affected an area of 3,500 square meters. Firefighters spent five hours battling the flames, and a dozen residents of nearby residential buildings were evacuated as a precaution.
Another 250 people were rescued without serious harm.
The Russian Investigative Committee, which investigates major crimes, reported that the suspect had been detained for firing the flare gun and that the director of the entertainment center was also in custody.
Ikhtiyar Mirzoyev, a member of the regional legislature and a local shareholder, promised help to those affected by the fire.
The tragedy was reminiscent of a deadly fire in 2009, when more than 150 people died in a fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm, which erupted after a performer set off fireworks.
With AP and EFE
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