MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) – Five people, including three children, were killed in an accidental fire at a house in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, the regional Emergencies Ministry said Saturday.
The fire in the village Yuzhny, which spread to about 480 square meters and burned the house almost to the ground, started at about 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, according to a ministry spokesman. Officials earlier said the fire was caused by a small cooking stove, but later revised the statment, blaming the blaze on a short circuit.
“The family was living in temporary housing while their house was being renovated,” a spokesman for the regional Investigative Committee said, adding that two electric heaters, flammable liquids, lumber, and a good deal of portable electrical equipment was found in the family’s yard.
The spokesman said it appeared the family had been making furniture in the yard, and a short circuit in one of the pieces of equipment sparked the fire.
A one-year-old toddler, its parents, and their two adopted children, ages 3 and 12, died in the blaze, the spokesman said.
Ministry officials earlier reported that an unidentified man had been killed in the fire and that police were searching for the body of the toddler.
