Investigators on Thursday opened a criminal case on negligence charges after four adults and three children died in a fire in a Perm region residential building.
According to investigators, the fire broke out in a two-story wooden apartment building in the village of Sars, roughly 200 kilometers from the regional capital, on the night of Nov. 7.
The bodies of four adults and three children — aged 8, 11 and 16 — were later discovered after the fire was extinguished, local investigators said in a statement.
Of the 72 people registered in the house, 51 were evacuated and two were rushed to the hospital with burns of various degrees of severity, the statement said.
Investigators, who are still identifying the cause of the blaze, have opened a criminal case on charges of causing the death of two or more people through negligence. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of three years.
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