News

9 people, including 2 men, 2 women and 5 children (aged between 8 and 3 years) died on the night of 9 May 2016 in a fire in a single-family wooden house in Kayukova Street in the town of Sukhoi Log. The Sverdlovsk Region Office of the Investigative Committee has opened and is now investigating a criminal case over a crime under Part 3 of Article 109 of the RF Penal Code (reckless homicide of two or more people).

There is an investigative team of the most experienced investigators and criminalists of the Forensics Office of the Sverdlovsk Region Office Investigative Committee. Officials of the Forensics Directorate of the Investigative Committee have arrived in Sukhoi Log to provide practical assistance and guidelines.

So far a number of investigative operations have helped to recreate the picture of the incident. All the victims and the sole survivor have been identified. The man is now at the intensive care unit of the local hospital. The victims are the owners of the house, their children, a female relative with her children and a friend who had come to visit. The man in the hospital is the husband of the dead woman. The causes of the fire are being checked now.

The investigators have revealed that a bathhouse located in the yard was heated for a long time on the afternoon of 8 May. About 10:30 PM, local time, the people saw that the boards on the roof of the bathhouse around the chimney were smoldering and started to put them out with water. They did not call firefighters. Soon the families went to sleep, but the boards that had not been put out started smoldering again setting the bathhouse on fire. Later the fire swept to the house. The fire spread immediately because the house was made of wood and very old (it was built approximately in the middle of last century).

As of now more than 50 witnesses from among victims’ relatives and neighbors and firefighters have been questioned. The detailed characteristics have been received for both families stating that they were not problem ones and were not registered as such in social authorities. 9 forensic medical examinations are being run to find out the exact cause of death. Experts are also estimating the bodily harm done to the man who survived the fire. A fire examination has been assigned to find out exact reasons for the fire. The investigation is ongoing.