On Thursday evening, March 26, in a five-story residential building located on 19 Domenschikov Street, a popping of air-gas mixture followed by ignition occurred in the apartment on the second floor. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Emergencies in the Chelyabinsk region. According to the latest data, two people died as a result of the accident.

It is noted that fire and rescue units arrived at the scene of the incident when several apartments on the second and third floors were covered by fire. The fire was assigned an increased level of difficulty.

“EMERCOM employees saved 31 people. At 20:20 local time, the fire was localized, the spread of fire stopped. As a result of the emergency, two people were killed ... At present, employees of the inquiry department and fire testing laboratory have left for the fire site, ”the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the investigating authorities of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Chelyabinsk Region instituted criminal proceedings on the fact of what happened on the grounds of a crime under Part 3 of Art. 109 of the Criminal Code (“Causing death by negligence of two or more persons”).

The mayor of Magnitogorsk Sergey Berdnikov came to the place of emergency. According to RIA Novosti, the press secretary of the head of the Chelyabinsk region, Sergey Zyu, the mayor is in constant contact with the regional governor Alexei Teksler and reports to him about what is happening.

“According to preliminary data, in apartment No. 74 of a five-story building on 19 Domenshchikov Street, where repairs were being carried out, stretch ceilings were installed, and a gas explosion occurred. There were three people in the apartment. The fire spread to the remaining four floors. Now there is information about the two dead, information is being clarified, ”Berdnikov said.

He noted that, according to the housing and communal services and management companies, the apartment building passed the relevant checks, but this information will be “carefully checked”.

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In turn, the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Alexei Texler, also noted that careless handling of gas during repairs is considered as the main cause of the explosion.

“There are witnesses who saw how a gas cylinder was delivered to the entrance and, accordingly, the apartment, so for now the main version is that it is an explosion of this cylinder,” TASS quoted the head of the region.

He also instructed the head of Magnitogorsk to organize work to determine the number of victims, organize temporary accommodation centers for people and ensure the protection of property of citizens in the affected house.

“With regard to assistance, all necessary assistance will be provided. In particular, financial assistance due to the current situation. The property damage to the victims will also be compensated. Depending on the severity of the consequences, individual decisions will be made to help the families of the victims and the victims, ”said Texler.

According to TASS, citing the press service of the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, the dead were a woman and a teenager born in 2006. In addition, the Ministry of Health of the region indicated that two children were also affected.

“In connection with the fire in Magnitogorsk, two teams of doctors from the regional children's clinical hospital were formed and went to the scene of the incident: these are multidisciplinary teams consisting of an anesthesiologist, resuscitator, surgeon, traumatologist and combiologist,” the department said.

“The windows were shaking”

According to RT, an eyewitness to the incident, he heard a loud bang, more like an explosion. According to the man, he lives “400-500 meters” from the house in which the incident occurred.

“I looked out the window, but did not see anything. A few minutes later from another room, where the window was ajar, I heard a lot of sirens, and already looked from another window, ”he said in an interview with RT.

He emphasized that at that moment black smoke was already visible from behind the houses.

In turn, another resident of Magnitogorsk reported that she had “windows walked” from the explosion.

“We felt a shaking, after literally 5-7 minutes we heard a siren and we immediately arrived there. There was fire in the region of 4-5 floors, that is, everything is in smoke, and in fact nothing is visible. There are a lot of people, but firefighters worked well pretty quickly arrived. At this moment, the fire was extinguished. Now there are firefighters, the police walk around the porches, looking for people, ”Svitlana Luchevaya, an eyewitness to the events, told Radio Sputnik.