MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) – Five people died in a fire that broke out in a residential building in the town of Kolomna outside Moscow, the Investigative Committee reported on Sunday.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry previously reported three men and a woman were killed in the fire.
“This night the investigative authorities received information that the bodies of five people, four men and a woman, were found after the fire was extinguished in the nine-storey building,” the Investigative Committee said.
An investigation into the causes of the fire has been launched.
Negligence, careless smoking and reluctance to comply with fire safety rules during repairs are the most frequent causes of residential building fires across Russia. The number of house fires has risen dramatically in the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the most recent incident, one person was killed and at least 11 others injured by a blast and fire in an apartment building in Russia’s West Siberian city of Tomsk in late November.
The blast on the eighth floor of a high-rise destroyed a wall, two balconies and caused a fire in two apartments on the upper floors. The Emergencies and Civil Defense Ministry’s local administration said the blast was caused by a faulty gas canister used during apartment renovation.
The blast prompted the house residents’ evacuation amid freezing temperatures.