Moscow will on Wednesday pay last respects to its chief firefighter who died Saturday while trying to save every possible survivor in a fire that engulfed a business center in the city's north.
Colonel Yevgeny Chernyshev, who had a day off, personally arrived at the site of the fire and was inside the building checking whether people were left there when part of the roof collapsed burying him. The fire embraced an area of 1,800 square meters and took five hours to extinguish. Six people were safely evacuated.
Colleagues have described Chernyshev, born in 1963, as an honest and just manager who was always ready to help if someone was in need. On his post, he took part in extinguishing more than 250 large fires. The top Moscow firefighter, who was married with a son, personally saved dozens of lives.
Oleg Mitvol, the prefect of Moscow's Northern District, said Saturday that the last fire inspection of the building took place in 2007 and a new check was scheduled for 2010.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered nationwide fire safety checks after a fire late last year killed over 150 people at a nightclub in the west Urals city of Perm.
MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti)
