DUSHANBE, April 4, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Embassy in Moscow says there are no Tajik nationals on the list of those killed in a Moscow market fire.
“According to information received, there are no our citizens among those killed by a fire that swept through a market warehouse in southern Moscow Tuesday morning,” the source said.
Meanwhile the market fire death toll has risen to 17.
Russian media sources report the fire has swept through a market in Moscow, killing 17 migrants workers who were using it as a temporary shelter. All were citizens of nations in Central Asia.
We will recall that Russian media outlets reported that most of the dead were from Tajikistan and the rest may have come from other countries in the region.
The fire at Kachalovsky market broke out yesterday 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.
Russia has an appalling fire safety record. Some 12,000 people died in fires across the country in 2011, according to emergencies ministry figures. The United States, with a population over twice as large, saw around five times fewer fire-related fatalities.
Migrant workers living in dangerous makeshift accommodation are often the victims of blazes. Seven died in May 2011 in a blaze that engulfed an abandoned building in downtown Moscow.
