Death toll reaches 109, 130 injured
By The New York Times
The master of ceremonies at the nightclub was cracking jokes late on Friday, surrounded by hundreds of people eating sushi and dancing with drinks in hand, when a pyrotechnic display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with twigs.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the M.C. shouted. "We are on fire! Leave the hall!"
A stampede ensued that ended in one of Russia's worst calamities in recent memory. The authorities said Saturday that 109 people died — from the blaze or in the crush of people fleeing — and that more than 130 were injured in the central Russian city of Perm. Many of them were hospitalized in critical condition with severe burns.
Bodies were piled up outside the club in the early-morning cold on Saturday as traumatized survivors, their clothes seared by flames, and others searched for loved ones, witnesses said.
"It was horrible," Andrei Klimenko, 30, a computer technician who lives in the same building as the nightclub, said in a telephone interview from Perm.
"I have never been witness to anything like that," he said. "I remember seeing one guy who kept screaming, 'Where is my sister?' And no one could calm him down. Another man shouted that he had lost his son, and he could not control himself."
The high number of deaths reflected Russia's longstanding problem with fire safety. Blazes in apartment buildings, nightclubs, health-care centers and other such facilities regularly cause heavy losses, in large part because of poor regulation of safety and building codes.
The owner and executive director of the Perm nightclub, the Lame Horse, were arrested Saturday, as were three other workers.
The nightclub had been fined before by inspectors for unsafe conditions, and it did not have a permit to use pyrotechnics indoors, officials said.
On Friday night, the nightclub was holding an eighth-anniversary party, which was promoted on its Web site. "Guests dressed as newborn babies are admitted free until midnight," the Web site said. Amateur video shot at the restaurant and broadcast on Russian television showed a routine boisterous party. Professional dancers performed to "We Will Rock You" by Queen, and then the M.C. took the stage.
When sparks from pyrotechnic fountains hit the suspended ceiling, many people at first did not seem to understand the danger, but fear escalated as flames and smoke spread. "Everyone rushed out," a woman who was at the nightclub told reporters. "People just broke down the doors because panic began. Everything was filled with smoke and you could not see anything."
The suspended ceiling was apparently a sheet of plastic covered with twigs, intended to create a rustic look. Svetlana Kuvshinova, a witness, told The Associated Press that the blaze swiftly consumed twigs. "The fire took seconds to spread," Ms. Kuvshinova said. "It was like a dry haystack. There was only one way out. They nearly stampeded me."
Most of those who died suffered from smoke inhalation or were crushed, officials said. On Saturday afternoon, people began lining up at the morgue in Perm, 700 miles northeast of Moscow, to try to identify relatives and friends.
By The New York Times
The master of ceremonies at the nightclub was cracking jokes late on Friday, surrounded by hundreds of people eating sushi and dancing with drinks in hand, when a pyrotechnic display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with twigs.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the M.C. shouted. "We are on fire! Leave the hall!"
A stampede ensued that ended in one of Russia's worst calamities in recent memory. The authorities said Saturday that 109 people died — from the blaze or in the crush of people fleeing — and that more than 130 were injured in the central Russian city of Perm. Many of them were hospitalized in critical condition with severe burns.
Bodies were piled up outside the club in the early-morning cold on Saturday as traumatized survivors, their clothes seared by flames, and others searched for loved ones, witnesses said.
"It was horrible," Andrei Klimenko, 30, a computer technician who lives in the same building as the nightclub, said in a telephone interview from Perm.
"I have never been witness to anything like that," he said. "I remember seeing one guy who kept screaming, 'Where is my sister?' And no one could calm him down. Another man shouted that he had lost his son, and he could not control himself."
The high number of deaths reflected Russia's longstanding problem with fire safety. Blazes in apartment buildings, nightclubs, health-care centers and other such facilities regularly cause heavy losses, in large part because of poor regulation of safety and building codes.
The owner and executive director of the Perm nightclub, the Lame Horse, were arrested Saturday, as were three other workers.
The nightclub had been fined before by inspectors for unsafe conditions, and it did not have a permit to use pyrotechnics indoors, officials said.
On Friday night, the nightclub was holding an eighth-anniversary party, which was promoted on its Web site. "Guests dressed as newborn babies are admitted free until midnight," the Web site said. Amateur video shot at the restaurant and broadcast on Russian television showed a routine boisterous party. Professional dancers performed to "We Will Rock You" by Queen, and then the M.C. took the stage.
When sparks from pyrotechnic fountains hit the suspended ceiling, many people at first did not seem to understand the danger, but fear escalated as flames and smoke spread. "Everyone rushed out," a woman who was at the nightclub told reporters. "People just broke down the doors because panic began. Everything was filled with smoke and you could not see anything."
The suspended ceiling was apparently a sheet of plastic covered with twigs, intended to create a rustic look. Svetlana Kuvshinova, a witness, told The Associated Press that the blaze swiftly consumed twigs. "The fire took seconds to spread," Ms. Kuvshinova said. "It was like a dry haystack. There was only one way out. They nearly stampeded me."
Most of those who died suffered from smoke inhalation or were crushed, officials said. On Saturday afternoon, people began lining up at the morgue in Perm, 700 miles northeast of Moscow, to try to identify relatives and friends.
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