A fire in Perm, in the club "Lame Horse", broke out on December 5, 2009. As a result of the tragedy, 156 people were killed. It was the largest fire in Russia in terms of the number of victims. In the world ranking of such incidents in nightclubs, this fire was in 9th place.
Description of the night club
The lame horse night club was located in Perm. This was one of the most popular entertainment venues in the city. The club was located on the street. Kuibyshev, not far from the building of the Legislative Assembly. On the day the fire occurred, the nightly entertainment venue celebrated its next anniversary.
The Lame Horse had only 50 seats for visitors. But 282 came to the celebration. A staff of 40 people served the guests. It was planned to hold a colorful show with fireworks.
Start of fire
The fire at the Lame Horse nightclub began at 23:08 Moscow time (01:08 Perm). Wall and ceiling decoration for Lame Horse consisted of willow twigs and canvases. Sparks from the fireworks provoked a fire. They hit the low ceiling. And thanks to the flammable material, the speed of fire spread has increased.
In addition to canvas and twigs, the ceiling of the Lame Horse was covered with foam. Although by all fire safety rules this is prohibited. The use of pyrotechnics in such a room is the main cause of the fire at the Lame Horse club. As soon as the fire touched the foam, toxic smoke containing hydrocyanic acid began to be released.
Fire spread
The fire at the Lame Horse nightclub spread instantly. From the moment the first flames licked the ceiling, and before the club's premises were filled with poisonous smoke, only 50 seconds passed. Of course, this is very little to have time to evacuate visitors. But it was during this time period that they could safely leave the building. However, they were not informed of this immediately. The host of the show reported a fire and asked everyone to leave the building only at the 14th second. The chronology of events will later be restored by investigators.
Of course, all the guests immediately rushed to the exit. The tragedy at the Lame Horse club could be less ambitious. But for some reason, all the signs in the room led only to the main entrance, although there was black. Only some employees of the institution could get out through it.
Visitors were sent only to the main entrance. The result was a large crush at the door. Although there were two, but for one reason, each of them was closed. The guards managed to break one of the inoperative shutters. But it didn’t help much. The light soon went out, and a human panic joined the stampede.
Many visitors were heavily carbon monoxide poisoning. Part received serious burns. Visitors who were able to get out onto the street on their own received frostbite of varying degrees. Since the frost was –16, and people were without clothes. Many of the victims who were taken out of the Lame Horse were laid directly on cold asphalt.
How did the special services
The fire at the Lame Horse nightclub (photo of the tragedy can be found in this article) began at about one in the morning. The fire department received a fire message at 01:08 local time. A special service was notified to one of the victims. He ran to the fire station number 110, which was located just a hundred meters from the club.
And at 01:10 an ambulance rang. Cars immediately arrived at the scene. At 01:11, firefighters arrived at Lame Horse. All fires have their own degree. The fire at the Lame Horse club was equated to the third category. Twenty fire brigades were sent to the scene of the tragedy. The fire extinguishing had to be postponed until the club visitors were completely evacuated from the premises.
The first fire engine arrived at the building at 01:18. To provide medical care, the teams and equipment were not enough. Many of the victims had to lie on the frozen ground for more than an hour, until the turn reached them.
The tragedy at the Lame Horse club showed that the special services were not prepared for such a situation. Numerous witnesses of what was happening subsequently noticed that their work was inconsistent and very poor.
Many people could be saved if medical assistance was provided immediately. Instead, those rescued from the fire were already dying outside the walls of the building from wounds, burns, shock and cold, while the doctors were waiting, lying on the frozen ground.
Ambulances drove up constantly. But the latter arrived at the scene only at 02:35. A total of 55 ambulance and 2 emergency response teams arrived. Evacuate the victims from the building finished only by 5 o’clock in the morning. The fire in the Lame Horse club was extinguished, but the institution burned out almost completely.
Only at 05:15 several airplanes were sent to Perm with resuscitation equipment, which is necessary for transporting people with serious burns. Many were taken to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk hospitals.
Affected and killed at the Lame Horse Club
Assistance was provided to 79 victims of the fire. 111 people died. Many died without waiting for medical help, being poisoned by carbon monoxide and toxic gas, and having severe burns. In Perm hospitals, 142 victims were assisted. Of these, only 22 reached medical institutions on their own. Despite all the efforts of doctors, 45 people died in hospitals.
The number of victims in the club "Lame Horse", according to official figures, amounted to 238 people. Of these, 96 died immediately at the scene, the rest on the way to hospitals and directly in medical clinics. Only 82 people survived. Of these, 64 received injuries and burns of varying severity.
Trial
As soon as they finished putting out the fire in the Lame Horse club, a criminal case was immediately opened. The prosecutor charged the following persons:
- Anatoly Zaku (co-founder of the night club).
- Svetlana Efremova (Executive Director).
- Oleg Fetkulov (art director).
- Derbenev: father and son (suppliers of pyrotechnics).
- Vladimir Mukhutdinov (chief state inspector for fire supervision in the Perm region).
- Natalia Prokopieva and Dmitry Roslyakov (fire inspectors of state supervision).
- Konstantin Mrykhin (one of the founders of Lame Horse).
The investigation was completed only on July 4, 2010. Between June of the same year and December 2012, 238 court hearings were scheduled. Of these, 111 were ripped off for a variety of reasons. In 2012, the court sentenced Konstantin Mrykhin to six and a half years in prison. In April 2013, the remaining 7 defendants received various sentences. Five were sent to serve their sentences in a penal colony:
- Anatoly Zak was imprisoned for 9 years and 10 months.
- Oleg Fetkulov - for six years.
- Svetlana Efremova - for four years.
- Father and son Derbeneva - five years and four years 10 months.
Two were sent to a colony settlement:
- Dmitry Roslyakov - for 5 years.
- Natalia Prokopyeva - for 4 years.
The only accused, Vladimir Mukhutdinov, was simply fined and escaped imprisonment.
Cause of fire
The cause of the fire could be a terrorist attack. Therefore, an examination was made. But at the scene of the fire, explosives and their traces were not found. Therefore, the version of the attack disappeared. There is only one reason left. As the investigation showed, the fire started due to sparks of pyrotechnics that hit the polystyrene foam on the ceiling of the club. As a result, a fire immediately occurred.
It has already been established that the fire in the Lame Horse club, a photo of which is in this article, occurred due to fireworks. There are two types of it - it is pneumatic (serpentine, confetti) and pyrotechnic (Bengal fire). Its use indoors, which does not comply with fire safety standards, is prohibited.
Nevertheless, the club used pyrotechnics instead of safer pneumatics. At first it was assumed that the fire occurred due to the unauthorized release of fireworks. But witnesses said that it was launched by the organizers of the celebration.
They may not have previously calculated the height of the room. Therefore, a column of sparks reached the ceiling. According to another version, the pyrotechnic product turned out to be of poor quality. As a result, the volley was too strong and reached the ceiling.
Fire aftermath
After the Lame Horse club burned down, the Perm Territory administration resigned. Then throughout the country, inspections of amusement institutions (especially nightly) for compliance with fire safety standards began. As a result, 18% of Russian clubs were closed.
All families of the victims received financial assistance in the amount of 100,000 rubles. This decision was made at an emergency meeting of the city administration, which took place immediately after the tragedy.
Monument to the dead
The fire at the Lame Horse club will be remembered for a long time. In December 2011, a granite monument to the victims of the fire was erected in the Ural Volunteer Park, which is located next to the former night club.
It is made in the form of a gazebo. Inside is a stele. The surnames, names and age of the dead are embossed on its sides. The building of the former night club was transferred to the Perm Art Gallery and the museum, which collected materials about political repression.