Two major fires in Russia in one day: what is known

In Russia, two large fires broke out in one day: a tire factory in Barnaul and a hypermarket in the suburbs of Moscow burned down.

In Khimki, a suburb of Moscow, early on Friday, December 9, a fire broke out in a large shopping mall Mega Khimki. As a result, the construction hypermarket OBI was completely burnt down.

The fire started in the store around 6 am. The fire spread quickly throughout the hypermarket, during the emergency there were several explosions. The fire area is 18 thousand square meters. He was awarded the fourth category of difficulty, one of the highest.

According to Russian rescuers, the roof of the OBI hypermarket caught fire, and later there was an explosion, after which the structures began to collapse. The fire did not spread to the rest of the Mega Khimki shopping center.

Cause and effect

At least one person has been reported dead. This is a shopping center security guard, according to media reports, his name is Sergey Smurov. According to Telegram channels, he was one of the last to leave the burning building; he was found on the street with a broken head – according to preliminary data, a metal structure fell on him during the evacuation. In total, at the time of the fire, 20 people were in the building, 19 of whom were successfully evacuated.

The prosecutor’s office of the Moscow region began an investigation into the fact of the fire, and the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) opened a criminal case.

Initially, the Investigative Committee considered different versions of what happened, and did not rule out the possibility of arson, but later the TFR said that unskilled welding was the cause of the fire. Investigators have identified the company that carried out the repairs, and are now looking for its management, as well as identifying the employees who directly carried out the welding work.

Meanwhile, more and more MegaKhimki shopping center workers are popping up in Moscow. pic.twitter.com/q4BScMaIdM

— Energy on the ball (@PowerNaShary) December 9, 2022

Damage from the fire could reach 20-30 billion rubles, according to the All-Russian Union of Insurers. According to media reports, the building is insured by the Swiss company Zurich Insurance, which sold the Russian business in the spring of 2022.

How OBI was “squeezed”.

In the past, the OBI network was owned by Germans, but after the outbreak of the Russian war against Ukraine, they closed all their stores in Russia. Here, the top leadership in the Russian Federation threatened the company with an invasion. Later, the conflict was resolved: in April, the Russian business of OBI was transferred to the management of the trust.

According to Forbes, the trademark should leave the country, but gradually – within six months. Experts estimated the value of the deal at six billion rubles. From the end of April, OBI hypermarkets in Russia began to gradually reopen, but in July the deal was closed and the chain was bought by the investment and construction company MAX.

So Josef Liokumovich became the owner of the Russian business OBI. 27 hypermarkets in the Russian Federation, where about 4,900 employees worked, went to him for 600 rubles. In 2019, he already negotiated the acquisition of this business – then it was about 100 million euros.

Fire in the Altai Territory

While they were trying to put out a fire at a hypermarket near Moscow, they were also fighting a fire in Western Siberia. The elements occupy more than a thousand square meters of a tire plant in Barnaul, in the Altai Territory.

Due to the size of the fire, more than a hundred rescuers were involved in its elimination. A special fire train was also used to supply water.

Barnaul!!! Wait there, good mood…🤙 pic.twitter.com/KJg6eZe5GZ

— ✙ NEON✙ 🇺🇦 (@DimonchikUA81) December 9, 2022

At first, a fire broke out in one of the tire factories. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the elements had already taken over the four-story building, which continued to spread.

This is Barnaul. Fire at Nortec Altai tire plant. The ignition area is more than one thousand square meters. pic.twitter.com/tfE87caWez

— bamr (@bamr69) December 9, 2022

According to preliminary information, no one was injured or killed due to the incident. However, extinguishing continues, and data is determined.

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