Four people died and 13 injured ones were delivered to hospitals after a fire that broke out in the sky-rise Kazakhstan Hotel in Alma Ata this morning. There were citizens of Russia, Germany and Croatia among those who died.
Andrei Lavrov, head of the press centre of the city fire-fighting service, says 162 clients and hotel staff were evacuated in the first 90 minutes of the fire, including 12 that were rescued from lifts that stopped owing to a short circuit.
The officer on duty received the fire alarm signal at 4:48 a.m., local time. Panicked people jumped from windows, 13 of them breaking bones and getting severe bruises. Some were delivered to
hospitals with fume poisoning.
The bodies of four people - three clients and one woman floor attendant - were found at the 23rd floor of the hotel. They apparently died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The fire fighters localised the fire 42 minutes after arriving at the site. The fire was put out at 7:30 a.m., leaving behind a burned-out area of 100 square metres.