A historic building in St. Petersburg, Russia, was destroyed by a fire on the 12th. A firefighter was killed in the line of duty while fighting the fire. Many people were injured, two of whom were seriously injured. Fearing that the building would collapse, firefighters stopped fighting and evacuated for a while. The cause of the fire is not clear for the time being. The prosecution has launched an investigation.
The building is listed as a cultural heritage by the city government of St. Petersburg and was the site of Thornton Wool Textile Company, Russia’s main textile production company in the 19th century. The enterprise was nationalized during the Soviet Union and became the Nevskaya Textile Factory, which was privatized in 1992.
In recent years, the building is still partially used for textile production, partly as office space for rent, and partly idle. According to local media reports, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations inspected the building last month and found nine violations, and found that it was “serious violations of fire safety requirements”, including the lack or failure of automatic fire fighting, fire alarm, smoke exhaust and other fire protection systems.
