Russia: Funeral held for school fire victims

Grieving relatives, friends and officials held a funeral today for the 22 children killed when their wooden Siberian schoolhouse burned down in one of two deadly fires at schools in Russia last week. They were buried in a common grave.

Emergency officials in the Yakutia region believe they found the remains of all the victims of the fire in the village of Sydybal, but not all could be identified because they were too badly damaged, TVS television reported. The blaze left the school a smouldering heap.

Flags in Yakutia flew at half-mast and the chairman of Yakutia’s government, Yegor Borisov, attended the ceremony, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Last week, prosecutors blamed the blaze on building code violations, which they said also contributed to the high number of casualties, but NTV television reported today that the cause had not yet been established. It said the school director was fired for negligence.

According to NTV, 15 children were in the village hospital and more than 20 others in a burns centre in the area, where they were being treated by specialists brought in from Moscow.

The Yakutia fire came three days before a blaze at a boarding school for the deaf in the southern region of Dagestan killed 28 children.

A schoolboy credited with saving about 10 friends will receive a state award, TVS reported. It said the boy woke up other students and helped save them by shattering a second-story window and throwing mattresses and bedding out to break their fall.