ALMATY, November 30. /TASS/. Thirteen people have died in a fire at a hostel in Almaty, the city’s emergencies department said.
"At 5:33 local a.m. time on November 30 (11:33 p.m. GMT on November 29), a fire was reported in Adi Sharipov Street. Firefighters arrives at the site in seven minutes. When they reached the scene, the fire consumed the basement of a three-storey apartment building, where the basement and the ground floor house a hostel," it said, adding that the fire was extinguished in an hour.
"According to preliminary information, firefighters found 13 dead bodies. They are being identified. Preliminarily, they died of carbon monoxide poisoning," it said.
According to the city’s public health administration, two people were taken to hospital.
There were 72 people in the hostel when the fire started. Fifty-nine managed to evacuate. An investigation is underway.