Chief firefighter dies in business centre blaze.

MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) -- The chief of the firefighting service,
Yevgeny Chernyshev, died when evacuating people from the burning business
centre in Moscow, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's information service
head Irina Andrianova told Itar-Tass.
The body of Chernyshev was found on the upper floor of the building at
21:55 Moscow time. He evacuated people and came under the collapsing roof,
she said.
Chernyshev was born in 1963. He headed the firefighting service of the
Moscow department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. He arrived at sites
of most serious fires in the capital.



.Business centre fire extinguished.




MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) -- The business centre fire in northern
Moscow, in which the firefighting service chief died, is extinguished, a
source working at the site told Itar-Tass.
The chief of the Moscow firefighting service, Yevgeny Chernyshev, died
in the blaze. He came in the burning building to examine the premises to
see whether there could be people on the fourth floor, a police source
said. Contact with the fireman was lost soon, but he reported just before
it that he was short of oxygen.





.Moscow business centre fire extinguished.
(updates)




MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) -- The business centre fire in northern
Moscow, in which the firefighting service chief died, is extinguished, a
source working at the site told Itar-Tass.
The chief of the Moscow firefighting service, Yevgeny Chernyshev, died
in the operation. He came in the burning building to evacuate people and
was trapped under the collapsing roof. His body was found on the upper
floor of the building, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's information
department head Irina Andrianova told Itar-Tass.
A police source told Itar-Tass that Chernyshev came into the burning
building to examine the premises to see whether there could be people, but
contact with him was lost in some time. Before losing contact, he reported
that he was short of oxygen. Evidently, he could not get out when the
construction began to collapse, the source said.
The fire broke out in the business centre, 2nd Khutorskaya Street, at
about 17:00 on Saturday. The first fire crews arrived at the site in six
minutes. However, flames spread over 500 square metres. The blaze broke
out on the first floor and spread though the ventilation system to the
garret and then through covers to the second, third and fourth floors. The
blaze swept a total of 800 square metres, and 500 square metres of the
roof collapsed.
Six people were evacuated from the burning building. They were not
hurt.
Aside from the firemen who are removing the destroyed constructions,
emergencies ministry investigators are working there to establish the fire
causes.