Sparkling verdict

The investigation into the Lame Horse case is coming to an end. Main version: fireworks are to blame for everything. Victims don't believe

The ruling of Ruslan Ibiev, an investigator who is investigating the Lame Horse case, states that since 2001, nightclub managers have acted “as part of an organized, stable group of people who had previously united to commit a crime.” Like they were planning an arson. Previously, they were accused of violating fire safety rules, and now they are under the article "Provision of services that do not meet safety requirements." This is the first time that a fire has been investigated under this article of the Criminal Code. Otherwise, the prosecution would not have been able to attract Anatoly Zak, whom the investigation considers a co-owner of the institution, says lawyer Alexander Ostrovsky.

Under the previous article, Zack's detention expired on June 5. By changing the article, the investigators not only kept him behind bars, but also got rid of the need to prove that he was the actual owner of the club. All those accused under this article - except for Zach, this is the art director of the club Oleg Fetkulov and the executive director Svetlana Efremova - face up to ten years. According to investigators, Alexander Titlyanov, the tenant of the premises, who himself died in a fire, was also in the "stable group" along with them. “From a legal point of view, it’s even impossible to comment on it - it’s just some kind of nonsense,” says Alexander Sadukov, Zak’s lawyer. Meanwhile, the investigation into one of the biggest tragedies of the past year is drawing to a close. The official fire-technical examination is also ready. The victims and independent experts have many questions about her conclusions.

The fire broke out on the night of December 5th. 156 people died. There are now eight defendants. The director of the pyrotechnic company "Pirotsvet" Sergey Derbenev and his son Igor, the organizers of the ill-fated show, are accused of violating the rules for the use of explosives. And the chief fire inspector of the Perm Territory Vladimir Mukhutdinov and his subordinates Dmitry Roslyakov and Natalya Prokopyeva are negligent. In addition, Konstantin Mrykhin, another co-owner of the club, according to investigators, has been put on the wanted list.

The cause of the fire, according to the latest official version, is the ignition of the foam covering the ceiling from a particle thrown out by a pyrotechnic device. “The pyrotechnics was sentenced even before the investigation began, and then they simply adjusted the examinations to this version,” says Anatoly Vorobyov from the Russian Pyrotechnic Association. Representatives of the initiative group of victims also claim that the investigation did not work out the version of a short circuit and deliberate arson. “There was cotton, and immediately black smoke poured out, an ordinary fire does not happen like that,” one of the victims of the Lame Horse, Sergei Kolpakov, is convinced.

The victims say they will insist on a new examination. According to Newsweek, there were several fire examinations. And each had its own results. In January of this year, the Fire Defense Research Institute determined that the cause of the fire was a short circuit. “The Ministry of Emergency Situations did not like this, and another examination was appointed,” says one of the participants in the investigation. The Forensic Expertise Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Science under the Ministry of Justice, conducted a new examination. Its results are available to Newsweek: fireworks are to blame this time. However, in conclusion, the experts wrote that "the wires were melted as a result of overloading the power grid."

The version with fireworks was tested and confirmed by an experiment at the test site of the Geodesy Research Institute in Krasnoarmeysk, Moscow Region. In the hangar, at a height of 2.8 m, they hung an imitation of the Lame Horse ceiling with fragments of all finishing materials - foam, fabric, wicker and wood. Under the target, they launched the Rio pyrotechnic fountain and homemade mortars, which, according to the investigation, were launched by the father and son of the Derbenevs. And they found that after 20 seconds, "Rio" was already hitting a height of 2.8 m and set fire to the "ceiling".

There are questions about the experiment. Firstly, it is impossible to simulate the situation in the club at the time of the fire, says Vil Borisov, head of the certification center for pyrotechnics Pirotex. For example, no one knows to what extent the ceiling of the Lame Horse was heated by powerful spotlights. At the test site, the ceiling model was heated for an hour and a half with powerful heaters. “Any object can be heated to a state of spontaneous combustion,” objected a researcher at the Research Institute of Applied Chemistry (NIIPKh). In addition, there is no evidence that the same foam was used in the experiment as in the club, adds an employee of the National Academy of Fire Safety Sciences. Also, the examination did not establish whether the ceiling was treated with flame retardants - according to the rules, this must be done twice a year.

Experts do not believe at all that a Rio-class fountain can set fire to a target. “The burning time of sparks is negligible, so they can break through a bundle of hay, but they will not have time to ignite it,” explains a scientist from NIIPH. At the end of December, the NIIPH conducted its own experiment - for the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Mikhail Sukhodolsky. Experts also tried to prove fireworks were the culprit. In a specially built gazebo with a thatched roof, pyrotechnicians lit indoor and then more powerful street fountains. None of them could set fire to the straw.

At the same time, pyrotechnician Sergei Derbenev claims that the Rio fountains were not used at all that night in the Lame Horse. "Rio" is an outdoor fountain and indoor use is prohibited. Why they chose this particular fountain for the investigative experiment, if there is still no comparative analysis of the remains of the fountain in the club, Derbenev's lawyer Ekaterina Golysheva does not understand.

Relatives of the dead also insist on a chemical analysis of the club's ceiling cladding - after all, most of the dead were not burned, but suffocated by acrid smoke. In addition, the victims want to know if firefighters, doctors and officials did everything to save their loved ones. But the investigation does not even raise such questions before the experts. The same fire inspectors who regularly checked the Lame Horse wrote prescriptions to the club administration more than once. But they did not notice that there was only one exit in the room, vents instead of windows, and about 200-300 visitors instead of the 50 stated in the documents.

Last week, 150 victims and relatives of the victims filed civil lawsuits against the accused - for a total of 1 billion rubles. Sergey Kolpakov is one of the few who did not do this: “I know these people well and I don’t hold a grudge against them - they didn’t set this fire on purpose.” This is why government agencies exist to control business, arrive on time for fires and provide adequate medical care, he argues. One of the lawyers for the victims, Igor Trunov, proposes to expand the circle of defendants - to add to it the military, owners of the premises, officials who turned a blind eye to violations - and transfer part of the financial responsibility to the Ministry of Finance.

The victims and relatives of the victims really need money. Kolpakov's wife, 22-year-old Irina Pekarskaya, is still in critical condition at the St. Petersburg Institute of the Human Brain. Her eldest son, Sasha, is three years old, and her youngest, Artur, turned one last week. A month's stay at the Brain Institute costs 300,000 rubles, and the doctors don't know how long the treatment will last. The 400,000 rubles given to Kolpakov after the fire ran out long ago. Kolpakov says that the governor promised to pay for Ira's stay at the Brain Institute until the end of June. There is no money for treatment abroad.

Anatoly Zak's lawyers asked to be released pending trial on bail of 10 million rubles. Another defendant, Svetlana Efremova, has repeatedly stated that if she had been released before trial, she would have continued to work and would have paid 500,000 rubles a month for the treatment of the victims. “It would be better if Ira was cured with this money,” Sergey Kolpakov sighs gloomily. “Yes, and this money could provide real assistance to other victims.”