Fire in Russian city Fryazino near Moscow leaves at least 8 dead

At least eight people near Russia’s capital city are dead after a multi-story office building fire took place Monday afternoon local time.

“Two people died after jumping out of a window,” a local emergency official told the state-run TASS news agency as people were seen trapped in floors taken by flames.

The report about the fire at 2 Zavodskoy Proyezd in the Russian city of Fryazino nearly 30 miles northeast from Moscow came in at about 2:39 p.m. local time on Monday afternoon.

Andrei Vorobyov, the Moscow region’s governor, said the building belonged to the Platan Research Institute, a producer of defense electronics which been under U.S. sanctions since June 2022 for allegedly producing and distributing “pigments and dyestuff” used by the military, according to the Moscow Times.

It was later reported by a Russian emergency management service that an explosion inside the building had been caused by a “gas cylinder.”

A criminal investigation is underway into the building fire which later engulfed the 5th to 8th floors, according to authorities.

“Six people stayed inside the building where interior structures collapsed. According to preliminary data, they died,” a spokesperson said, adding that nine individuals were in the premises where the fire began but only one of them was rescued.

One 34-year old male victim is hospitalized and listed in “grave condition.” Two firefighters sought medical help for “smoke inhalation,” according to the state-run Tass news.

The effort to put out the fire involved more than 100 people and 40 pieces of equipment along with two helicopters sent to the scene.