Azeri president orders inquiry into Baku house fires
BAKU. May 19 (Interfax) - Azeri President Ilham Aliyev is seriously concerned by the fire that broke out at a 16-storey residential building in Baku's Binagadi district and killed 16 people, Presidential Aide for Socio-Political Affairs Ali Gasanov said.
"The president has instructed the relevant government agencies to eliminate the fire aftermath and provide full assistance to the affected citizens. At present, the Health Ministry is taking measures to provide necessary medical help to the fire victims," Gasanov said in an interview with Azertag, a state news agency.
He said Aliyev ordered to set up a special commission to conduct a full inquiry into the fires that broke out in two residential buildings in the capital's Khatai and Binagadi districts.
The Azerbaijan Prosecutor General's Office Investigative Department for Serious Crimes has opened a criminal case into the fire at the tower block in Binagadi district on several charges.
Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's Office, Interior Ministry and Emergency Situations Ministry said in a joint statement that the investigative and detective activity of the newly-formed group, consisting of experienced staff from the three agencies, is under the Azeri president's control.
Rescue and law-enforcement officers evacuated 27 people from the burning house, 37 were rescued, the fire had been contained by approximately 2 p.m. local time, the nearby buildings were protected from fire spread, the statement said.
Despite these efforts, 15 people were killed as a result of the fire that engulfed a large part of the house within a short period of time, and 26 people were taken to various hospitals with burns and smoke inhalation, the statement said.
The country's Prosecutor General, Zakir Garalov, who arrived at the scene, said that the preliminary cause of the fire is a poor-quality external facing of the building.
Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities have arrested the chief of Global Construction, that company which provided the external facing for the residential building, a spokesperson for Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's office said.
The company boss, Miryusuf Makhmudov, has been arrested as a suspect in the case. His company manufactured and used poor-quality material to put external facing on the building.
This is not the first fire in Baku caused by the external facing catching fire. Early this year two flats in a residential building burned down in another district of Baku as a result of a similar fire.