Estuve leyendo algunos periódicos rusos y las cifras más recientes son de 36 muertos (4 rusos) y 171 estudiantes hospitalizados, de los cuales 10 estarían en estado crítico y 47 muy graves.
Se están investigando las causas del incendio que aparentemente habría comenzado en el cuarto 203, donde vivían tres chicas, de Kenia, Mali y Nigeria, las cuales no se encontraban en su cuarto. Si bien se cree que se debió a un problema eléctrico no se descarta que pudiera haber sido intencional.
Fire Rips Through Dormitory, 36 Dead (The Moscow Times)
A fire roared through a five-story dormitory at the Peoples' Friendship University early Monday, killing at least 36 trapped foreign students and injuring 197 others in Moscow's deadliest blaze in almost a decade.
Some 170 students from Africa, Asia and South America remained hospitalized late Monday, suffering burns, smoke inhalation and fractures sustained when they frantically jumped out of windows to escape the fire. Ten were in critical condition.
Investigators said the fire was probably set off by the improper use of an electric appliance, most likely a heater.
This was the third deadly blaze at a Russian school this year, and President Vladimir Putin called for a thorough investigation.
Leky Guarra, 21, a student from Mali who lived in the dilapidated dormitory on 15 Ulitsa Miklukho-Maklaya, said he woke up at about 2 a.m. to the sound of screams and the smell of smoke.
He and his two roommates fled through their window and gingerly walked along the window ledges to reach waiting firefighter ladders.
"It was scary because we were five floors above the ground," Guarra said. "And many of my friends didn't risk climbing out and walking on the ledges. But there was no other way out. Those friends that didn't dare go with us are dead now."
Officials said 220 foreign students were registered as residents in the dormitory.
Guarra said he called for help before making his escape but firefighters were slow to react.
"We called the firefighters at 2, but they didn't arrive until 3 in the morning. What took them so long I don't know," he said.
"While they were taking their time to arrive, the house was on fire, people were screaming and shouting, trying all possible rescue means on their own. Some who stayed on the lower floors were jumping out of the windows. They were lucky on the ground and second floor. Those on the third floor often broke legs and arms. Others were trying to escape climbing down on ropes they had made from bed linen."
A fire safety department spokesman insisted that the firefighters arrived on time and did their job well.
"It was worse than anything I ever saw on TV," said Aicha TourП, a medical student from Mali living in a dormitory opposite the scene of the fire. "There was fire, there was broken glass, there were cries and shouts, people jumping out of windows. It was horrific."
The dormitory was used to quarantine new students who arrived in Moscow this fall and were to undergo medical checks before starting their studies.
Seventeen of the dead were Chinese students, the Chinese Embassy said.
Also among the dead and injured were citizens of Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru and Malaysia, according to students and the city health committee.
Investigators were trying to identify the injured and dead Monday night. Students and embassy officials were assisting them at city hospitals and morgues.
Rimma Maslova, deputy head doctor at Clinic No. 31, the hospital closest to the university, was treating 32 patients late Monday.
"We received two more last night but had to transfer them to a different clinic because we could not provide proper care. Their burns were too grave," Maslova said.
He said most of his patients had multiple fractures, apparently from jumping out of the windows to escape the fire.
Sergei Smirnov, head of the Sklifosovsky First Aid Institute's burn center, the best such facility in Moscow, said he was treating 13, three of whom were in critical condition. He said they were two Ecuadorians and a Bangladesh national with multiple fractures and burns over more than 60 percent of their bodies.
Deputy Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told a Cabinet meeting presided over by Putin that a preliminary investigation pointed to an electrical problem.
He said there was no evidence that the fire was the result of arson or a bomb.
Education Minister Vladimir Filippov insisted that the building had been equipped with all the necessary fire safety equipment. Strict new fire safety rules were passed for schools over the summer after two blazes in April killed a total of 50 children in Dagestan and Sakha.
Filippov suggested that arson might be to blame, saying police have questioned an African student who lived in the room where the fire started.
Police could not immediately confirm his statement.
Filippov said a similar blaze occurred in an adjacent building about nine years ago, killing seven students. "That time around it was proven that the building was set on fire," he said, without elaborating.
Some students said they have received many racist threats and the fire could have been deliberately set. "Skinheads have long been threatening us," Tour said. "Last week there was a bomb threat and students were evacuated from one of the buildings. But no bomb was found. This was no accident either."
"I think it was some idiot who got high and forgot a match or a cigarette," Guarra said.