Moscow State University hit by fire

One of seven Moscow’s famed Stalin-era towers was struck by fire, which broke out in a student dormitory in the Moscow State University’s main building in the early hours of Dec. 30.
Fifteen-hundred people were evacuated, and two people required medical treatment. At least one international student from China, who lived on the floor where the fire started, was admitted to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, Interfax reported.
The fire broke out in one of the residential rooms on the 18th floor in corpus B due to a short circuit or faulty wiring, according to fire-fighters’ preliminary data.
“Notification on the fire was received at 3:17 am, and smoke was coming out of the building’s two windows,” Yevgeny Bobylev, press-service head of Moscow’s branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Thick smoke which quickly spread through the building made some people think there were several ignition sources there, but fire-fighters are sure there was only one.
The room where the ignition source was located burnt out completely, according to the building’s guard, but the person who resides there wasn’t at present at the time of the accident.
The blaze was extinguished in less than an hour according the Moscow’s Emergency Situations Ministry.
The renowned landmark has already suffered fires before, and in 2006 two people were killed in a fire which broke out early in the morning when people were asleep.
The last fire, which happened in 2009, was less dramatic. The flames spread to just 5 square meters, and the only lose was burnt furniture. No one was hurt.