“I promised, I did.” The burned Wildberries warehouse could have been set on fire by an employee: he wrote about it before the fire

The burned Wildberries warehouse in St. Petersburg could have been set on fire by an employee – it became known that at the end of December he announced in a chat about his intention to set it on fire, and after the incident he admitted it. On January 13, a huge warehouse in Shushary burned down, two workers were injured.

The Shot Telegram channel published a screenshot of a chat between employees of a burnt warehouse. In it, an unknown employee wrote on December 27 that “soon the mesik will burn.” By mesik we mean mezzanine – multi-tiered shelves for storing goods. The worker could mean the entire warehouse by this.

On the evening of January 13, after the fire, he allegedly admitted to arson in this chat. The employee soon deleted his account. What could have been the reason that prompted him to set the fire is still unknown. It is indicated that the warehouse workers soon passed information about their colleague to the authorities.

The investigation is considering the possibility of arson

After the fire, the investigation, as well as the Ministry of Emergency Situations, considered three versions of the cause of the fire, including arson. In addition, the cause could be careless handling of fire and emergency operation of the electrical network (traces of a short circuit were found). The latter was previously called the main one. It has not been reported at this time whether there is evidence to support the version of arson. The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Abuse of Power”).

The situation during the fire was aggravated by the disabled fire alarm system, which was associated with multiple false alarms.

The fire, according to preliminary data, could have started in the room with the packaging film – the employees of this block were the first to evacuate. There were 350 people in the room at the time of the fire. Later, all other workers—more than 1,000 people—were evacuated from the warehouse.

Damage from the fire was estimated at 11 billion rubles

As a result of the emergency, two warehouse workers were injured. A 56-year-old man suffered a broken finger during the evacuation, and a 22-year-old girl was poisoned by combustion products and bruised her arm; she was hospitalized.

For some time, management was unable to contact dozens of workers. Later they were found unharmed – some of them did not contact their employer because their mobile phones were left in the area for storing personal belongings when the workers were urgently evacuated from the scene of the emergency.

Wildberries' material losses due to the fire were estimated at 10-11 billion rubles. It is noted that the fire was the largest among those that affected Russian retail. Lawyers expressed the opinion that the losses incurred by the marketplace will most likely have to be covered from net profit; the company cannot count on insurance due to the lack of documents on the commissioning of the building.

It was also reported that almost nine percent of all Wildberries orders were shipped from this Wildberries warehouse. The location was one of the most convenient for the company in the northwestern region, so its loss looks quite significant for the business.