Seventeen migrants die in Moscow market fire

Seventeen migrants die in Moscow market fire

2012-04-04 09:00:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- At least seventeen suspected migrants were killed on early Tuesday morning when a fire broke out at a market in the Russian capital of Moscow, emergency officials said.

The fire broke out at around 4:50 a.m. local time at a warehouse located at the Kachalovsky market, where a number of migrant workers were staying at the time. The workers were reportedly cramped up in a small area, sleeping on a stacked bunk bed in a room which ahd no direct access to the street.

A spokesperson for Russia's emergency ministry confirmed at least seventeen people had been killed, but it was not immediately known if all the victims are migrants. The bodies of the victims were badly burnt, making it difficult to determine who they are.

Russian media said that all of the victims are believed to be from the impoverished former Soviet republic of Tajikistan. It not uncommon that workers from Tajikistan illegally migrate to Moscow and work in poor conditions.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, although police are investigating whether it was caused by a heater which had been left on throughout the night, as temperatures had dropped to around zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) in Moscow.

The deadly blaze comes just six weeks after the Emergencies Ministry discovered a number of fire safety violations at the market, although it was not immediately known what had been done to address the issues. Russian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation on Tuesday, although this is a standard procedure when a large number of fatalities are involved.

Last year, approximately 12,000 people died in Russia as a result of fires across the country. In comparison, the United States, which has a population over twice as large as Russia, had around five times fewer fire-related fatalities.

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