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Five Children Killed in Siberian House Fire

12 May 2013 04:58 (UTC +04:00)

A fire in a one-storey wooden house broke out at 20:38 Moscow time [16:38 GMT] on Saturday, spreading to an area of more than 200 square meters. The effort to tackle the blaze involved 33 rescuers and 14 vehicles and took about 1.5 hours.

"The fire left six people dead, including a girl aged 1.5 years and four boys, aged two, four, six and seven years. The identity of the sixth victim is being established,” the statement reads.

Russia has an extremely poor fire safety record. Around 15,000 people die in fires across the country annually. In the United States, with more than twice the population, the figure is around 3,400 deaths a year.