In Irkutsk, the official cause of the fire at Avalon City mall, which destroyed 2500 square meters and nearly brought down the building, has still not been named. The report examines the main theories, from a short circuit to careless handling of fire, and says why none has yet been confirmed. Special attention is drawn to camera footage showing five young people near a storage room, and to the expected conclusions of forensic experts.

A week has passed, but the official version is still unknown. So why did “Avalon City” burn down?
Residents of Irkutsk are already wondering why shopping centers on Traktovaya do not take root. In 2002, the “Parus” market was ablaze, and in 2009 “Cash-and-Carry” perished in the fire. “Avalon” is already the third. But was it doomed?
— At first there was a small fire, but since everything here is partitioned off, the firefighters could not get to it. Nor could they get water. So it all flared up, — says Oksana, an employee of the Avalon City shopping center.
As firefighters say, the building could not be saved because the service was called too late. That day, as if on purpose, the strengthening wind spread the fire across the square meters. They fought the open flames for about 7 hours. A fire train came to help.
The fire destroyed 2,500 square meters. The floor slabs on the second floor burned through. For some time, even rescuers had to be evacuated.
— There is a threat of collapse, so only firefighters are working.
— Are the owners coming?
— If they do come, we help, if possible, to remove some material assets so that the responsible authorities are present. And if there are no responsible authorities, then for now the valuables remain on the premises, — says Konstantin Malykh, an employee of the 2nd unit of Fire Station No. 5 in Irkutsk.
At the time of the incident, 60 people were inside the building. No one was injured. Even after the shopping center had burned down, it had to be protected again. This time from looters. Some goods survived in the stores. Although most of it was either destroyed by the fire or ruined by water. The first thing they thought of was a short circuit. The electronic systems had been malfunctioning all day. But that version was quickly ruled out.
— Experts established that in the place where the fire started, there are not even any wires. Therefore, the short-circuit version is immediately dismissed, — says Asya Davidson, a representative of the trading company “SPAR”.
The fire started in the food warehouse, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said. There was nothing to burn in the warehouse, experts refuted. Careless handling of fire is the last suspicion. Representatives of the shopping center reviewed footage from the outdoor surveillance cameras. One of them recorded five young men setting something on fire near the storage room.
— We are awaiting the conclusions of forensic experts. A fire-technical laboratory worked at the scene, and its conclusions may become the key ones, — says German Struglin, head of the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Irkutsk Region.