On January 29, a terrible fire broke out on Dorozhnaya Street in Chertanovo, leaving two people injured and twelve evacuated. There could have been fatalities if not for two students who heroically rescued a girl from the ninth-floor window. There is also evidence of deliberate arson.
Rescue students
In an interview for Gazeta.ru, student Adel Akhmetzyanov described everything that had happened. The three young men and Irina, the girlfriend of one of them, were in the flat in which they were renting rooms. When they came upon the smell of burnt wires in the corridor, the boys found a large flame. There was no time to pack up their belongings, the fire quickly spread into the flat. Adel and his friend Timur found themselves cut off from Irina. The young men hung from the ninth-floor window sill and knocked on the eighth-floor windows until Konstantin Kremlin, a downstairs neighbor, opened the door and helped them into the flat. Remembering Irina and realizing that the layout of the flats was identical, Adel and Timur rushed into another room and helped Irina down. Already on the street the boys met the third guy, Igor.
The arsonist
Information soon emerged that the fire in Chertanovo was no accident. Surveillance cameras recorded a man entering the entrance with his belongings and some liquid. Later, after interrogation, it became clear that the arsonist was 42-year-old Sergei Germanov. He decided to punish his estranged ex-lover and had no better idea than to set fire to her belongings outside her flat. Except that the woman didn’t live in the flat herself, she was renting it out.
“Timur has 10-20% of his body burned, Igor has about 40%”, – said Adel Akhmetzyanov.
The student and the rescued girl were not seriously injured. Sergei Germanov is accused of premeditated attempted murder of two or more people. The man admitted his guilt.
