‘Fire at Antey Trade and Entertainment Center was caused by arson. The fire broke out at the 11th bowling lane; some pieces of equipment had not been put together yet, so the lane was never actually turned on. This is why the short-circuit failure the firefighters speak about simply couldn’t happen. The fuel was put underneath the lane, and the smoke stayed there for a while, which is why the fire alarm failed to react instantaneously. When the fire did break out from underneath the lane, it was so formidable that all the hydrants switched on at once. The water pressure, however, was not enough to put it out,’ director of Antey Trade and Entertainment Center Andrei Gavrilovskiy said to UrBC.

‘During the fire, the mall employees and the firefighters failed to cooperate efficiently. The fire brigade demanded that all the power be cut off (including the back-up power source), which was quite reasonable, so the employees relied upon their expertise and followed the instructions. The firemen, however, failed to take it into account that the back-up power source provided electricity supply to the smoke-protection system,’ Mr Gavrilovskiy said.