Remains of Russia fire victims handed to families

Families of fourteen Vietnamese workers who had died almost two weeks ago in a fire erupting about 114 kilometers from Russia’s capital Moscow received Sunday the victims’ bodies and ashes at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

The remains were sent home Saturday on a Vietnam Airlines flight after the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia together with a few Vietnamese associations had carried out a moaning ceremony for all of them one day earlier.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son offered condolences to the unfortunate families and thanked Vietnamese individuals, organizations, and competent authorities in the European country for their help at the reception of the bodies and ashes this morning.

On September 11, a fire swept through a garment factory outside Moscow, killing the fourteen Vietnamese.

Firefighters sent to put out the blaze found their bodies in the factory in the town of Yegoryevsk, southeast of the Russian capital, and four other victims were hospitalized with burns, Reuters reported then, citing the Moscow region emergencies department.

Many migrant workers from Asian countries work in Russian factories in cramped conditions that are often at risk from fires, the UK-based news agency said.

Reuters added death rates from fires are far higher in Russia than in Western countries such as Britain and the United States, pointing out another fire in April on Moscow's outskirts that killed 17 migrant workers living in makeshift quarters at a market warehouse.

Sunday 23 September 2012

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