Six months after the tragedy, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Emergency Situations has released the findings of its investigation into a fatal fire in Astana: the blaze in the apartment was sparked by children's mischief, reports infohub.kz.
At the time of the fire, a woman and three children were in the apartment. Only the woman survived — after the horrific incident, she spent a long time in hospital with severe burns over almost her entire body. The girls who died in the fire were between 2 and 13 years old.
"The cause of the fire was children's mischief. The fire started inside. The criminal case has now been closed on the basis of Article 335, Part 1, Clause 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code due to the absence of an offense and the elements of a criminal violation," said Ruslan Kairakbayev, Deputy Chairman of the Fire Service Committee of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Recall that in the early hours of April 12, a fire broke out in a 15th-floor apartment of a 21-story residential building on Turkestan Street in Astana's Esil district. Twenty people were evacuated. The bodies of three minors were found in the apartment. In addition, one woman was hospitalized with burns.
Astana's Police Department reported that a criminal case was opened following the discovery of the minors' bodies, while the Emergency Situations Department stated that the apartment was locked with a metal door with two locks, which rescuers had to break open with tools.