"The bodies of 13 victims had been recovered and seven people are in hospital. The efforts to clear the debris are continuing," spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
The fire in a three-storey residential building in the village of Molodezhny broke out on Saturday evening and was put out two hours later. A total of 59 tenants had been evacuated from the building.
Markin said the building was recognized as structurally unsafe back in 1997 and its tenants were intended to be resettled. Investigators are currently carrying out measures to identify persons responsible for the tragedy, he said.
In a similar incident a week ago, twenty-three people, most of them elderly persons, died in a fire that destroyed a wooden care home in the Republic of Komi in northwest Russia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered on Thursday to carry out comprehensive inspections of all Russian retirement homes following the deadly fire at the Komi care facility.
