VLADIVOSTOK, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - Twelve people remain in a serious condition after a fatal blaze gutted the sixth floor of an office center Monday in one of Russia's biggest cities on the Pacific, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Tuesday.
On Monday, a blaze broke at about 12:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on the sixth floor of a building in Vladivostok. Some of the victims died when they jumped out windows in an attempt to escape the flames. In addition to the fatalities, another 12 people were hospitalized with burns and injuries.
"Five people are in a burns treatment center, and six in the hospital, including three in intensive care, one in neurosurgery and two in the toxicology ward," the source said. "One woman is in a regional hospital."
Sergei Darkin, the governor of the Maritime Territory where the tragedy occurred, sent his condolences to the families of the victims, and called for measures to be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.
"I am sure the cause of the tragedy will be established," Darkin said.
Investigators suggested that one reason for the high death toll could have been that stairwells had been blocked, which meant people could not use evacuation routes. But they added that it was not the only reason.
"Firefighters could not start extinguishing the fire because a car park had been set up next to the building in breach of fire-safety regulations," local prosecutors said, adding that it took the firemen some time to clear the parking.
The president's envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, Kamil Iskhakov, urged a review of fire safety systems in the Maritime Region.
Head of the local emergencies department Viktor Kapkanshchikov told Iskhakov that firefighters had arrived at the site in less than three minutes after the fire broke out, and had managed to evacuate 146 people.
Iskhakov said also expressed his sympathies for the relatives of the victims, and promised to bring any guilty parties for the tragedy to justice.
At 11:45am on January 16, in Vladivostok, Russia, a fire broke out on the three upper floors of the ''Sberbank'' building.

Photographs taken by eye-witnesses show people, who were trapped, dropping from 8th floor windows to their deaths. According to some reports the firemen who were dispatched to the scene were pre-occupied at the rear of the building. They had apparently been ordered to evacuate the bank and its management from the area, which was not under immediate threat.

Official Russian media initially denied the fire, accusing the reports of being false.

Russian media later confirmed 7 and then, 9 dead. Witnesses and those rescued from the burning building have claimed that the figure exceeds 50.

A maintenance employee who worked in the building was quoted as saying, "I know at least about 13 dead inside ... that's the least I've noticed, not to consider those who've dropped down ...  8 of them dropped, looking at the three already dead on the ground, but they went through the windows without hope to be rescued ... They collected and hid the dead bodies inside. I work at this building! I know its layout very well! To declare, as it become clear, a less number of the dead later." 

"My daughter worked in a justice department," - Natalia, one of the witnesses said. "She said that there were actually much more dead - up to 70. She went on the dead bodies, getting out from the building … some of them were so scorched, that it was impossible to identify them… 9 victims? That's a lie!" 

Georic, a witness: "The cops ("menty"), whom I know, say that they've been loading the dead bodies all night long."

Lelya has posted her evidence on January 21, 2006 on the web-site http://news.vl.ru/vlad/2006/01/18/tradegy/ 
"My brother worked in that building, on the 6th flour. So, the night after the fire they visited the building to collect the documents, etc. and they saw how workers transported the dead bodies. He said, there were 50-60.."