Vladimir Putin blasts fire safety measures in Russia

PERM, December 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blasted fire safety measures in Russia calling them "insufficient and ineffective."

Putin held a meeting early Tuesday in the Russian Urals city of Perm, where last Saturday's horrific blaze in Lame Horse nightclub killed 113 people and injured over 120.

"We must admit that the current measures are insufficient and ineffective," Putin said. "The tragic incident in Perm has in a violent manner reminded us that our fire safety is far from successful."

Russia has an appalling fire safety record. According to the country's emergency services, 15,165 people died in fires across the country in 2008, including 584 children. On average, 42 people die daily in Russia in fires. In the U.S., with a population over twice as large, the figure is around 3,400 deaths a year.

"This incident reminds of other similar emergency situations. The Republic of Komi, where tens of elderly people died, the incident in the Arkhangelsk Region, where 16 people, including children, were killed in a fire," Putin said.

A fire at a three-story residential building in the village of Molodezhny, in Russia's southern Astrakhan Region, killed 16 people in mid-February this year. Just a week earlier, 23 mostly ederly people died in a fire that destroyed a wooden care home in the republic of Komi in northwest Russia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed then his administration to carry out comprehensive checks nationwide to uncover possible violations of fire safety and to look into general living conditions at care facilities.