Fire at the Leningrad Hotel on February 23, 1991. eyewitness accounts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

1991 was not a very successful year for Leningrad. On January 11, a flood occurred in the city, and the Neva overflowed its banks, causing great material losses. Before the capital had time to survive the water element, another incident happened - the largest hotel burned down. It was the Leningrad Hotel. A fire in 1991 claimed the lives of many people.

Was fire safety standards observed during the construction of the hotel building?

The Leningrad Hotel was built in 1970 on the Vyborgskaya embankment. The main goal of the designers and builders was to quickly commission the facility. The construction was supposed to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great leader of the proletariat V. I. Lenin. During construction, few people were interested in creating a safe environment for people. The use of flammable toxic materials in finishing work can be considered a real crime. They were located on the evacuation routes of people.

Carpets and paths did not have a special impregnation that prevents the spread of fire. Wallpaperwere also subject to easy fire. They gave off suffocating smoke and gas. The system responsible for removing smoke was also imperfect. As a result, during the fire, a large amount of gas was formed, which led to the poisoning of people.

The open openings made it easy for fire and smoke to spread to neighboring floors and increase the death toll. What consequences did the fire bring to the Leningrad Hotel? 1991 was a fatal year for the building. The key events of the tragic day will be discussed in this article.

Soviet luxury hotel

Foreign citizens, as well as party, trade union and Komsomol figures, high-ranking officials, actors and singers stayed at the hotel. The deluxe rooms were always busy.

In 1986, the construction of the second building of the hotel began. Due to certain reasons, the local construction trust suspended its work, after which the joint Yugoslav-Austrian company continued. The contract amount was 48.5 million dollars. According to the agreement, the second building was supposed to start functioning two years after the transfer of the construction site in May 1989. He got the name "puck". By the way, at the time of the fire, most foreign builders lived in this building.

The fire at the Leningrad Hotel caught a lot of people. Among them were quite well-known personalities: a correspondent for Ogonyok magazine, the famous French actress Marina Vladi, Russian actor Andrei Sokolov and other artists who starred in the new filmnear Leningrad.

Who reported the fire?

The fire in the Leningrad Hotel started at 8 am. The call to the fire brigade, as stated later, was made very late. According to official data, the floor attendant was the first to report the accident. Other sources claimed that the doorman called.

How did the Leningrad Hotel catch fire? The fire of 1991 started from the seventh floor, which corresponded in height to the tenth floor of ordinary houses. The hotel staff initially tried to put out the flames themselves. By that time, the fire had engulfed the entire floor and blocked the escape routes for those on the two floors above. The high temperature caused the windows in the rooms to burst. They flew out with a bang. And the sharp gusts of wind rushing into the building from the Neva River aggravated the situation. The upper floors of the hotel were shrouded in thick black smoke.

How quickly did the fire departments react?

Six minutes later, a fire guard car drove up to the building engulfed in fire, then one after another, other cars began to drive up with tanks, pumps, ladders, GZDS and other equipment. Soon, all units of the fire department of Leningrad were pulled up to the place of the tragic event.

Her staff immediately assessed the situation. The hall and stairs of the hotel were filled with guests and employees who fled from the floors located below the fire. To get to the top, a group of firefighters decided to use the service elevator. It was necessary to quickly assess the situation and providehelp those who need it, and then proceed to put out the fire.

What was the difficulty in saving people?

The folding ladders only reached the fourth floor of the building, and the people at the windows begged for help on the seventh floor and above. High-pitched screams were heard, thick smoke poured from the rooms, as the synthetics caught fire.

The guests, who managed to escape from the heat, ran in panic along the only staircase. Many who got out of the rooms, being poisoned by smoke, fell in the corridor. Before firefighters could get to the fire in the elevator, the molten plastic managed to ruin a person's life. On the tenth floor, a hotel employee died. When burned, this material releases up to a hundred toxic substances.

The fire (02/23/91) in the Leningrad Hotel spread instantly, aided by the wind. For a very short period of time, the seventh, eighth, and ninth floors blazed with bright fire, and the occupants found themselves blocked off. One of the women, unable to stand it, jumped out of the window and died.

Gas and smoke protection squads carried out a hasty evacuation of those in the hotel through the stairwells. Rescuers carried people on their clothes on their shoulders. The injured were immediately handed over to paramedics. Other firefighters were busy laying a fire hose and entered into an unequal duel with fire.

How many people were saved?

In total, 253 people were rescued by firefighters, 36 of whom were carried out on their hands. Among the rescued were small children. However, not everyone received help. Six guests and a police officerAlexander Faikin, who helped in the rescue of people, died.

How many firefighters died?

Deaths among firefighters turned out to be much more. The fire at the Leningrad Hotel claimed the lives of nine employees. Several of them were burned and suffocated. The rest died while trying to get out of the burning hotel.

Was there a chance to escape?

According to Leonid Belyaev, the ex-chief of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of St. Petersburg, if there was the slightest opportunity to escape, firefighters would take advantage of it. Some firefighters from the 7th unit jumped out of the windows. Belyaev notes that the sight of the dead guys lying on the ramp was terrifying. A total of nine firefighters died.

Posthumously awarded

How do people honor those who gave their lives putting out the fire in the Leningrad Hotel? The victims were posthumously awarded orders in August of the same year. We did not forget about the surviving heroes who distinguished themselves in rescuing people who were in the hotel. According to eyewitnesses, the number of victims would have been much higher if not for the courage and dedication of the rescuers.

In memory of the fallen firefighters, every year a mini-football tournament is held in St. Petersburg. All major competitions in fire and applied sports in this city are marked by the laying of mourning wreaths at the Serafimovsky cemetery.

According to eyewitnesses, the funeral procession with the bodies of dead firefighters stretched for 10 kilometers. She moved to the sound of fire truck sirens. Thousands came to pay their respects.

Happy Memorial Daythe dead comrades of the firefighters are considered to be February 23.

Did the firemen make a mistake?

The fact that the firefighters chose the elevator led to speculation that it was a fatal mistake. Employees were credited with arrogance. But Valery Yankovich, who in 1991 served as head of the 1st fire department of Leningrad, noted many years later that in that situation it was impossible to do otherwise. Access to the burning floors was possible only with the help of elevators, in order to bypass the crowd of people who rushed to the stairs in a panic.

Combat regulations at that time allowed the use of elevators. According to the rules, it was necessary to land on the floor below the burning one and extinguish it with the help of trunks. And the fact that the elevator stopped on a burning floor, according to experts, was caused by a short circuit caused by high temperature. Undoubtedly, the human factor cannot be denied either. Firefighters got into the thick of it, no one could have foreseen such an outcome of events.

In an instant, engulfed in smoke and fire, firefighters attempted to descend, but at that moment the elevator was no longer working. People tried to break through to the stairs and windows located on the edge, break the elevator car and go down the shaft. However, time was running out, for many firefighters who found themselves on the seventh floor, the situation was a foregone conclusion.

At this time, the guests of the upper floors gathered at the open windows. They waved towels, and some tried to get out on their own. They tied sheets and used othersobjects that came to hand. It ended in fall and death. The fire ate number after number, reducing the chance of survival.

According to those participating in the events, in those days, fire brigades were not equipped with special equipment designed to evacuate people from high altitudes, and there were no rescue helicopters either.

The fire in the Leningrad Hotel (February 23, 1991), the photo of which is presented in this article, also caught the famous actress Marina Vladi. According to her recollections, she would certainly have died if it were not for the fireman, a wonderful brave man. He held in his hands a ladder that did not reach the seventh floor. The actress had to jump right at her from the window.

Witnesses of events

According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the fire in the Leningrad Hotel, whose photo captured the tragedy forever, was a terrible sight. It killed the festive mood of all Leningraders. Celebrated February 23rd. And although the scale of the tragedy was still unknown, it immediately seemed that the rally in honor of the significant date would not be held as usual.

There were no mobile phones and no internet at that time. How did people find out about such an incident as the fire at the Leningrad Hotel (1991)? Eyewitness accounts of people passing by the burning hotel helped spread as yet obscure rumors.

Journalist Alexander Nevzorov, who received the floor at a rally in support of the preservation of the USSR, reported on the disaster in Leningrad. Eventwas held on Palace Square. Nevzorov managed to visit the scene in the morning as a reporter. He noted that there are casu alties. However, even he did not know the details of the incident at this time. There has not yet been an exact summary of the casu alties. The townspeople learned about the incident only on Monday.

The official version of what happened

The fire at the Leningrad Hotel has an official version. According to the examination, the source of the fire was the 774th room, in which Swedish tourists lived. They turned on the Record B-312 semiconductor TV. Later, the guests went down to the dining room and did not turn it off. The transformer caught fire at 8 o'clock in the morning. After the fire was extinguished, melted wires were found in room 774, indicating a short circuit had occurred. Plastic trim inside the hotel contributed to the immediate spread of fire. In addition, when melted, it began to release toxic substances.

Unconfirmed versions

The fire at the Leningrad Hotel (February 23, 1991) was regarded ambiguously. There were other versions that were not officially confirmed.

One of the dead in the fire was the editor of the Ogonyok magazine Mark Grigoriev. He was found in his room. The head of the deceased was badly damaged. But experts have come to the conclusion that, most likely, the skull burst under the influence of high temperature.

A few years later, a detained member of Yuri Shutov's gang Airat Gimranov confessedlaw enforcement officials that he took part in the liquidation of the journalist and the arson of the hotel to obfuscate the traces, but no evidence was found for the words.

Often one could hear other versions. Many assured that the tragedy was the result of the work of Western intelligence services, the redistribution of the hotel business, an attempt to undermine the reputation of M. S. Gorbachev, an attempt on the life of actress Marina Vladi, etc.

The version was also circulated that it was a terrorist act, the purpose of which was to disrupt the rally on Palace Square, which was held before the All-Union referendum for the preservation of the USSR. But the rally, despite the fire, was held.

How did the TV present the fire in the Leningrad Hotel? The documentary "Saved Leningrad" fully covered the event, as well as the possible causes of the fire.

The fate of the hotel

Four months after the incident, the fire department of Leningrad gave permission for the temporary use of the damaged building. The management intended to complete the completion of the second part and receive tourists, and the first was supposed to be reconstructed. Four floors were severely damaged.

Then, for unknown reasons, the construction was suspended, and the building fell into the control of different people. His fate is still unclear.