Thirty-two die in university blaze
A fire tore through a Moscow university dormitory early today, killing at least 32 foreign students and injuring 78 others.
The fire raged through part of a five-storey dormitory belonging to the Patrice Lumumba Friendship of Peoples University, where many foreigners studied, emergency situations ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said. He did not know the nationalities of the victims.
The Interfax news agency, citing a foreign students’ union, said the dead and injured included students from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and several African countries.
Beltsov said the injuries included burns and smoke inhalation. Interfax said some of the dormitory’s residents suffered broken limbs and head and neck injuries when they jumped from windows to escape the smoke and flames.
In televised footage, flames roared through several rooms on the second, third and fourth floors of the building, appearing to gut the insides, and smoke poured from some windows as a wet snow fell in the pre-dawn darkness.
The fire was extinguished at about 5.30am (2.30am Irish time), about three hours after the alarm sounded, authorities said. There was no immediate word of the cause, but Echo of Moscow radio said authorities were investigating many versions, including arson.
The university, named after a Congolese revolutionary and former prime minister, was founded by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1960. Once a showcase where students from Third World nations received subsidised education with a strict Marxist curriculum, the university declined as the Soviet Union collapsed and its buildings became run down.
Russia has a high rate of fire deaths, 18,000 a year – nearly five times the number of fire deaths in the United States, which has twice the population. The contrast is even starker with the UK, where there are 600 fire deaths a year, or one per 100,000 people – compared with 12.5 per 100,000 in Russia.
Experts say fire fatalities have skyrocketed since the end of the Soviet Union, in part because of lower public vigilance and a disregard for safety standards. The age of Russia’s buildings also plays a role – many older buildings have wood partitions between the floors that help fires spread rapidly.
In flats, hallways are frequently blocked with junk, and residents install illegal metal doors in front of staircases – a tactic that might help keep out intruders but could also trap people fleeing a blaze.
Public spaces are not much safer: Theatres and concert halls often keep all but one door locked in an effort to conserve heat and control crowds.
State-run Rossiya television said the dormitory housed 280 students from 106 countries.
Rossiya said authorities believe the fire started in a second-storey room where three Nigerian girls lived, and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said initial information suggested the cause may have been a short-circuit in that room.
