DUSHANBE, April 3, 2012, Asia-Plus — Twelve people have been killed by a fire that swept through a market warehouse in southern Moscow.
There are reports that the victims were migrant workers from Tajikistan, some media source quoted the city”s emergency management agency.
The two-storey building was being used as living quarters for the market vendors.
The fire at Kachalovsky market broke out today at about 4:50 am and was extinguished some three hours later, RIA Novosti reported, citing emergencies officials.
Emergency workers described squalid, cramped living conditions where people slept on hard cots stacked on top of each other, according to the Interfax news agency.
The living quarters had no direct access to the street, and emergency workers had to cut their way into the building.
Itar-Tass reports that an investigator suggested the fire could have been caused by an electric heater left on overnight.
Media sources noted that large numbers of migrant workers are employed in Moscow, often without being issued official work permits. Paid little, many have no choice but to live in uncomfortable, and often squalid conditions.
Meanwhile, BBC reports the fire at Kachalovsky market came hours after a blaze at a skyscraper in Moscow, in which no-one was hurt.
On Monday night Russian fire crews were called to another fire that had engulfed the top of a Moscow skyscraper which is still under construction, BBC reported, noting that helicopters helped douse the flames which broke out more than 60 floors up on the Federation Tower complex.
Nikita Zhuravlev, from the development company Potok 8, said a broken light started the blaze, according to the Associated Press. “At 8:00 pm a broken plastic banner hit the light projector. Construction work is going 24 hours a day and the building area is lit by the projectors. The banner hit the projector and that caused the fire,” he said.
The structure is intended to be Europe”s tallest building and is due to be completed next year.
