A Russian court has sentenced eight people to years in prison for … a big fire in a shopping center in the Siberian town of Kemerovo. Sixty people died in 2018, including 37 children.
The highest penalty is for the manager of the building of which the shopping center was part. She was sentenced to 14 years in a penal camp for negligence. The sentences for the other persons responsible, including a guard and a leader of the local fire service, range from five to more than 13 years in prison.
The fire was caused by a short circuit in an indoor playground. Because the fire alarm did not work, visitors to an indoor cinema did not know what was happening outside the hall. By the time the fire had spread through the building, they had no place to go.
Shortly after the fire in the shopping center it turned out that the safety measures were inadequate. For example, emergency exits were not accessible and many walls turned out to be covered with plastic. The alarm system was also turned off. According to the researchers, the mall’s management deliberately ignored fire safety requirements in order to generate more profit.
The fire brigade spent hours extinguishing the fire:
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