Today the court of Kyzyl has started consideration of case about a fire in a hostel that killed 26. "Interfax-Siberia" news agency quoted the court secretary Orlana Kuular as saying that 4 people faced charges on two criminal cases investigated on fire: the inspector of a city fire department Larissa Zabolotskih, the master of the housing-operational enterprise "Nash Dom" (Our Home) Saida Irgit and businessmen Marat Aslanian and Zaliko Zhamkotsian who made capital repairs of a building of a hostel in the autumn of 2003. Case concerning Aslanian and Zhamkotsian was allocated in separate investigation. All who face charges are accused of a negligence and infringement of the fire prevention rules, entailed on imprudence death of two and more person, and also in plunder of the means allocated for repair of burned down two-storey wooden building.
Investigation of this case was conducted by a brigade of a department of the State Office of Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation in the Siberian Federal District. The case consists of 39 volumes.
Fire in a hostel in Kyzyl has occured on the night of November, 10th last year. It took lives of 26 people. The hostel was inhabited by workers from a power station of Kyzyl. News agencies reported that barred windows prevented residents from escaping after the fire, apparently caused by a faulty electric connection, started near the only exit. Itar-Tass news agency quoted the deputy mayor of Kyzyl as saying the local power company had cut off the hostel for non-payment and residents had rigged up a connection to the electric grid to keep the house heated. Night-time temperatures are as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in Kyzyl at this time of year.