Fire In Siberian Shopping Mall killed 64 Civilians And 200 Zoo Animals

The fire broke out at a shopping mall in Siberia had left 64 people dead including nine children and more than a dozen people missing  and about 200 zoo animals most likely to be dead, according to the recent reports. The accident took place exactly at Zimnyaya Vishnya mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo which is around 3600 km east of the Russian capital Moscow and about 500 km from the north-east of Kazhakastan border. 

Since it was a Sunday afternoon, the shopping mall was crowded and the fire was said to be started from the fourth floor of the Shopping mall which composes children play centre and a two-screen cinema where many children were watching a movie during the fire broke out.  The fire reached the top floor quickly thus creating thick smoke and people were shouting and rushing out to escape. Many adults and children jumped out of the windows.

People who came out of the burning shopping mall told that fire alarm did not work and there was no water to extinguish the fire. 

Russian Emergencies Ministry told on Monday that Firefighters were struggling to find the injured or corpses who struck up in the shopping mall because no one knows how many people were there in each shopping floor when the fire broke out.

According to the dated reports, the fire was brought under control by Sunday night but the smoke has lasted till Monday's morning and the building structure was subjected to a collapsing condition thus preventing the firefighters to reach the worst hit cinema hall to save the children. 

It was reported that about 15 fire teams consisting of 60 firefighters were involved in the rescue attempts and two firemen were dead during the rescue operation. Despite the unstable structure of mall and heavy smoke contamination, firefighters were risking their lives to rescue people from the mall, said by Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov. 

Deputy Governor Vladimir Chernov said the fire had started in a foamed trampoline room which is in children's zone and reports speculated that any of the children would have used a cigarette lighter in the fire-prone zone and thus producing a blaze like gunpowder. Russia's Investigative Committee had started a criminal investigation to analyse the real cause of the fire.

Similar to this accident, about 156 people died in a discotheque in another Siberian city, Perm in 2009 due to fire.

After winning again the Russian Presidential Elections held recently, Vladimir Putin faces the first sad news in his new term.