MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) —— A fire in an apartment house in southeastern Moscow, which killed three people, among them a three-year-old child, might have resulted from smoking. They called for firemen too late, head of the city emergency situations department Yevgeny Bobylev told Itar-Tass.
The fire in a three-room apartment on the 9th floor of the 12-floor house on Shumilovskaya Street broke out at night. The fire spread to 35 square meters.
“The fire killed two women. The three-year-old child died on an ambulance,” he said.
It took the firemen several minutes to reach the burning apartment, but the blaze was already coming out of two windows. “This means they called for firemen too late,” Bobylev said. “The women took the baby to the entrance hall but did not close the door of the burning apartment. That was a lethal mistake. The smoke penetrated into the entrance hall. It took several minutes to unlock the metal door to the entrance hall. The women were dead, but the child was still alive. The doctors failed to save him,” Bobylev said.
The other two apartments on the floor were intact, he said.