Apartment building fire kills 6 in Russia

Apartment building fire kills 6 in Russia

A fire swept through an apartment house in Russia on Monday, killing at least six people, an emergency official said.

The blaze broke out before dawn in a two-story building with eight apartments in the city of Ivanovo, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Moscow, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said.

Firefighters put out the fire in about four hours, Beltsov said. They found six bodies in the building and were still searching, he said, adding that the cause of the blaze was unclear.

Russia records about 18,000 fire deaths a year - roughly 10 times the rate in the United States. Experts say fire fatalities have skyrocketed since the end of the Soviet Union, in part because of disregard for safety standards.