A large fire occurred on Monday, April 12, in the building of the Nevskaya Manufactura factory in St. Petersburg, recognized as a cultural heritage site of regional significance.

At 12:35 pm, a message about a fire was received at the control panel of the Emergencies Ministry control service at 50, Oktyabrskaya Embankment.

Initially, the fire was assigned the second category of complexity (according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, combustion took place on the fourth and fifth floors of a six-story building).

Already at 13:13 the rank of the fire in the Nevsky District was increased to the maximum - the fifth.

At 14:21, the department reported that the combustion is taking place over the entire area on four floors, and by 16:09 the roof collapsed on an area of ​​10 thousand square meters.

At that time, about 70 pieces of equipment and about 350 people were involved in extinguishing the fire, several helicopters, including the Ka-32 of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and two Mi-8s of the army aviation of the Western Military District, joined the extinguishing.

The order for assistance was given by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

  • The work of fire helicopters of the Ministry of Defense

Firefighters were injured while extinguishing the fire.

As TASS was told in the press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, "the emission of a flame followed by intense combustion" occurred when the links of the gas and smoke protection service took people out of the building of the Nevskaya manufactory.

“In the course of extinguishing the fire and rescuing people, two firefighters were injured and hospitalized.

One was killed, ”the department said.

An agency source in the emergency services added that the deceased was the flight chief, the commander of the 64th fire department.

The interlocutor of TASS also clarified that victims of firefighters have burns of 40-50% of the body surface.

The Main Investigation Department of the ICR opened a criminal case on the fact of the state of emergency - under Part 1 of Art.

109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (causing death by negligence).

According to the press service, an investigative and operational group under the leadership of the deputy chairman of the TFR Alexander Klaus is working at the scene.

Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin put the investigation under the control of the department's central apparatus.

"A set of measures is being taken to establish all the circumstances of the incident, the necessary examinations are appointed, including the fire-technical one," the department said.

According to the representative of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, fire extinguishing is complicated by the design features and high fire load of the building of the Nevskaya manufactory, as well as by difficult weather conditions.

“Taking into account the high wind load and the constantly changing direction of the wind, fire and rescue units regularly redeploy forces and assets from various directions,” the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.

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According to Andrey Litovka, head of the press service of the St. Petersburg Emergencies Ministry's headquarters, the rapid spread of fire was also influenced by the fact that the factory building was built at the end of the 19th century.

“The partitions are wooden, with voids,” Interfax quotes him.

The specialist clarified that the late appeal to the Ministry of Emergency Situations could also affect the scale of the emergency.

As a representative of the emergency services told TASS, the cause of the fire could have been a short circuit in the switchboard.

“A short circuit version is being considered.

According to initial data, the fire occurred in the electrical room.

The workers ran for a fire extinguisher, and when they returned, everything was in smoke and there was open burning.

The fire spread over the wooden floors, ”he said, adding that the building also contained paints and varnishes.

In turn, an agency source in the emergency services said that in the building of the Nevskaya manufactory there were "rather serious" violations of fire safety requirements, including the absence or malfunction of the automatic fire extinguishing and fire alarm systems.

“They were identified by the employees of the State Fire Inspection during a routine inspection.

An unscheduled check showed that these violations were not eliminated, in this regard, the administrative material was sent to the magistrate's court, ”he said.

At about 18:00 the fire spread to the roof of a nearby building on Telman Street.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in the three-story building in which the hostel Maribelle was located, the wooden structures of the attic on an area of ​​50 square meters caught fire.

It was reported that 50 people were evacuated from the building.

The administration of the Nevsky district was also informed that the authorities had prepared for the evacuation of people from neighboring buildings.

However, according to a representative of the administration, there is no need for this yet.

Experts continue to work at the site of the emergency.

  • The fire spread to the building next to the factory