A fire started in a single-family two-storey house at midnight between 22 and 23 September 2016 in the town of Kalachinsk, Omsk Region and left 4 adopted children dead. Investigators of the regional investigative authority took off for the fire scene immediately. The Omsk Region Office of the Investigative Committee has opened an investigation into a crime under Part 3 of Article 109 of the RF Penal Code (reckless homicide of two or more people). Following the order of Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin experienced criminalists of the Investigative Committee’s Central Office have arrived at the scene.
According to investigators, a married couple aged 47 lived in the house with their 9 adopted children. On the night of 23 September, the parents left 8 of their adopted children with the man’s elderly mother and went shopping. They returned to find their house on fire. The father rushed to rescue the children, three of whom, two 13-year-old girls and their 12-year-old brother, had managed to get out by themselves. The man rescued a 2-year-old girl. The rest of the children could not get out the burning house and were killed in the fire. The 88-year-old woman managed to come out the house and them was hospitalized. The four children are also in hospital with three of them out of danger with a diagnosis of slight CO2 inhalation, while the two-year-old girl is in intensive care with acute CO2 inhalation.
By now responders have recovered bodies of the killed children: two-year-old twins, a 3-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. The fire razed the house. Investigators have found out that the ninth of adopted children, a 14-year-old boy, was in summer camp at when the fire broke out. Investigators have already found the preliminary cause of the fire: apparently, there was a short circuit which set a TV set on fire in the living room. However, it is still too early to say that it is the exact reason, which will be identified by a fire inquiry.
A team of criminalists keep on working on the scene with their colleagues from the central office. Urgent investigative operations are under way to find out all the details of the tragedy. The parents and other possible witnesses are being questioned. The investigators are going to assess the actions of the parents, who according to their neighbors often left their children unattended and drank alcohol sometimes. They are also going to find out the reasons why the parents had to go shopping in the middle of the night leaving their children unattended; and assess the actions (omission) of social services responsible for the family. The Investigative Committee’s Chairman has assumed personal control over the investigation.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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