It Is Supposed That A Short Circuit Triggered The Blaze At The Command Post Of The Space Group Directorate

According to the preliminary data, yesterday's fire at the command post of the Defence Ministry's space group directorate was caused by a short circuit, the law enforcers reported. The fire started at night, May 10, on the second storey of the six-storey brick building and then spread to the third and the fourth storeys along the cable rooms and tunnels. At noon the fire was brought under control and by seven o'clock in the evening was extinguished. Forty-five fire trucks and over 150 firefighters from the Divisions of the State Fire Service of Moscow and of the Moscow and Kaluga Regions took part in extinguishing fire. The command post, the antennae system and a considerable part of the apparatuses have remained intact. The command post of the Russian Defence Ministry's space group directorate is located 35 kilometres to the north-west of the town of Serpukhov in the Zhukovsky district of the Kaluga Region which borders on the Moscow Region. -O- (kos/lio) 11/05/01 11:25