Russian nightclub blast kills 101; guess they didnt learn from Thailand's experience

[kingwilly]

Russian nightclub blast kills 101

Dec, 5th 2009 08:37 AM
An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm early Saturday, killing 101 people, according to news reports.

Regional security minister Igor Orlov said the club had a suspended plastic ceiling that caught fire quickly when ignited by so-called "cold fireworks," which generally are fountain-type displays with lower temperatures than conventional fireworks, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

"The majority of the deaths were the result of burns or gas inhalation," state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's top investigate body, as saying "Along with this, there was a crush at the exit."

State television showed charred bodies lying in rows outside the club amid a light snowfall.

Markin said most of the victims were young people, and that there was no suspicion of a terrorist attack.

Russia has been on edge since last week's bombing of the prestigious Nevsky Express passenger train midway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, which killed 27 people. It was the first fatal terrorist attack outside Russia's restive Caucasus republics since 2004.

Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the bombing.

State television news channel Vesti cited the regional branch of Emergencies as saying the toll was 101 dead and 160 injured. Other reports put the number of dead in the high 90s.

Perm, a city of around 1 million people, is about 700 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains.

Enforcement of fire safety standards in Russia is notoriously lax and in recent years there have been several catastrophic blazes at drug-treatment facilities and apartment buildings.

Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per capita rate in the United States and other Western countries. Nightclub fires have killed thousands of people worldwide.

Ten people died when a so-called "fire show" went out of control at a Moscow club in March 2007.

In February 2008, a fire in the Golden Rock nightclub in the Siberian city of Omsk killed four people. Officials said the blast might have been caused by natural gas.

A nightclub fire in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.

[Mid]

jeezus , early reports had 20 ................

RIP folks

[Davis Knowlton]

Boy, they just can't figure out that plastic ceilings and flames don't mix well......Bet the exits were blocked too to keep folks from sneaking in. RIP party people.

[StrontiumDog]

I will be haunted forever by the images of the dead at Santika.

I guess this kind of tragedy will happen again elsewhere. It seems no one learns.

Terribly sad. RIP.

[dirtydog]

[Davis Knowlton]

Only one exit. Same in Rhode Island in 2003; over 100 dead under exactly the same circumstances. Owners in Russia had repeatedly been cited and warned prior to the fire. Owner and manager already in custody. 90 more critical condition. Death toll could go to 200.

[kingwilly]

The owner of the nightclub where at least 112 people died in Russia's worst fire in decades was jailed yesterday pending the results of an inquiry as shocked and grieving relatives began to bury the victims of the disaster.

About 130 remained hospitalized, many in critical condition, with injuries from the early Saturday blaze, which witnesses said was sparked by onstage fireworks that shot into the twig ceiling of the Lame Horse Club in the industrial city of Perm in the Ural Mountains.

The Federal Investigative Committee said the club owner, Anatoly Zak, had been detained, along with its unnamed executive director and artistic director, and Sergei Dergunov, a businessman hired to install pyrotechnics on the night of the blaze.

The committee's Website said they were suspected of negligence causing the death of two or more people and violating fire safety rules.

Leninsky District Court in Perm decided to hold the quartet for the length of the federal investigation.

The hearing was closed to the public.

Sergei Dergunov, the man who provided the fireworks, was ordered detained for the duration of the investigation, his lawyer Yekaterina Golysheva said outside the court.

Mourning residents were indignant over "negligence" on the part of the club's management, which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the club managers had been fined twice in the past for breaking fire-safety regulations.

Russian clubs and restaurants often cover ceilings with plastic insulation and willow twigs to create a rustic look, one of many uses of combustible materials in buildings by businessmen who bribe officials to look the other way.

Nadezhda Zhizhina placed flowers on the icy ground outside the Perm City Morgue in memory of her 21-year-old son, Sergei.

She said she wasn't expecting the compensation officials have promised to other victims' relatives because Sergei earned pocket money at the club as an unofficial administrator.

"I can't imagine what to do," Zhizhina said, weeping. "He was a golden boy."

She said Sergei's wife, Yulia, was eight months pregnant.

The fire has shaken this city of 1 million-plus, mobilizing even those who didn't lose relatives - such as Marina Dryonina.

"This is nothing but criminal negligence ... a terrible tragedy for our town," she said.

Darya Kochneva, an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman, said a man flown to a Moscow hospital had died, from horrific burns bringing the toll to at least 112.

Many victims were trapped in a panicked crush for emergency exits as they tried to escape the flames and thick black smoke.

Enforcement of fire-safety standards is poor in Russia and there have been killer blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and nightclubs in recent years.

The nation records up to 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.

Medvedev demanded that lawmakers draft changes to toughen the criminal punishment for failing to comply with fire-safety standards in the wake of the blaze.

Today has been designated a national day of mourning, with entertainment events and TV programs canceled.

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