“We could no longer breathe”: how in the captured Crocus an engineer broke through the wall and led people out of the burning building

Oleg Ukolov came to the big concert of the Picnic group at Crocus City Hall by accident - at the invitation of a friend who invited him along literally at the last moment.

“A friend, the godfather of my children, was given tickets by his wife for some holiday. At first they wanted to go together, but then for some reason she couldn’t. And he offered it to me. I also listen to this kind of music, so I agreed,” recalls Oleg.

When the first bursts of machine gun fire rang out in the Crocus lobby, he was on the dress circle. Together with other spectators, through the nearest emergency exit, Ukolov headed down the stairs to the exits from the building. But right outside the door shots were heard again.

“Then we ran upstairs - we wanted to get out onto the roof. The exit to it was covered with plasterboard. We began to break through it, but quickly realized that there was no passage there, so we found some kind of utility room and took refuge in it,” says Ukolov.

Soon a fire started in the building and smoke began to fill the premises. According to preliminary data, terrorists spilled and set fire to a flammable liquid in the concert hall. People hiding on the upper floors found it impossible to breathe.

“We ran down again. At that moment, the seats and curtains on the stage were already on fire in the hall,” says Ukolov. — The fire alarm did not work, only instructions were heard over the loudspeakers that it was forbidden to use the elevators. I told everyone who crossed our path to go down with us, not up.”

“We realized that there was very little time left”

According to Oleg, when they walked up the stairs, everything around was “like milk”: nothing was visible due to the dense smoke. He walked by touch and at some point felt an opening with his hand, went into it and came across a utility room in which several people were hiding from terrorists.

Despite the smoke in the room, people were afraid to leave the back room so as not to become victims of murderers. However, after a few minutes it became almost impossible to breathe.

Fortunately, as Ukolov says, there was a fire hydrant in the utility room. The men unwound it and began to water themselves and others. We wrapped ourselves in wet rags and clothes to make it easier to breathe.

“People were in such a state: no longer panic, but simply an understanding that there was very little time left. That is, you will not die from a bullet, but simply suffocate in two minutes. Because there was so much carbon monoxide that we could practically no longer breathe. That fire hydrant, of course, extended our life by a few minutes,” says Oleg.

At that moment he realized that the walls of the utility room were framed and could be broken through.  

“I tapped one - nothing there. On the second wall I found a weak spot where I could hit. There were metal chairs there, and we started hitting them with these legs. They broke the first layer, pulled out the insulation, and I stuck my hand into this hole. I felt the outer layer and realized that it was not hot, which means there was no fire there. And then the other men and I began to take turns breaking down the wall: by that time, everyone had already inhaled so much that it was difficult to break through it alone,” says RT’s interlocutor.

• Rescuers are clearing the rubble from the burned-out Crocus City Hall concert hall.

• RIA News

• © RF Ministry of Emergency Situations

At this time, rescuers had already entered Crocus. Smoke began to escape through the open doors, and the people who got out through the hole in the wall saw where to run.

According to Oleg, running through the foyer, he noticed that firefighters were trying to carry out a man with a gunshot wound on a stretcher.

“They just lacked only their hands: they grabbed the stretcher, and it became askew. I grabbed the handle on one side, and together we carried the man to the ambulance, which was already standing right at the exit,” says Oleg. 

He does not consider himself a hero; he says that the story of his rescue was embellished on social networks.

“We did it all together - it’s not like I led people along. I am an engineer, and my knowledge, of course, helped a lot in that situation. I quickly realized that the wall was not brick, but frame. In such a design, the main thing is to find the right place, punch the first hole, and then it breaks itself,” added Oleg Ukolov.

Based on the attack on Crocus City Hall, the Investigative Committee of Russia is investigating a criminal case of terrorism (Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On March 24, the chairman of the Investigative Committee also ordered to check the state of fire safety in the concert hall, in particular, to find out whether the emergency exit doors were open during the evacuation.