One Person Dies As Explosions And Fire Engulf Moscow Shopping Center

A massive fire at one of Russia’s largest shopping centers has killed one person and burned down a formerly German-owned home improvement store in northwest Moscow.

Emergency officials and Russian state media reported early this morning, Russian time, that the fire had broken out before dawn in a former OBI DIY store before dawn and engulfed nearly 200,000 sq ft of the Mega Khimki mall at its peak.

It was eventually contained and brought under control, with videos of the blaze accompanied by powerful explosions inside the German home and garden retailer OBI’s section of the mall widely shared online.

Video of the blaze shared on social media showed explosions at the massive Mega Khimki mall.

“The building’s structural features and a large combustible load complicated efforts to extinguish the fire. The fire spread rapidly over a large area due to the formation of strong convection currents from the collapse of the roof and instant access to oxygen,” Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said in a social media update.

One person was reportedly killed and Moscow region prosecutors later identified the victim as a MEGA Khimki employee, likely a security guard.

Initial reports had suggested that the blaze may have been the result of arson but subsequent reports suggested instead an electrical fault as the more likely cause, exacerbated by flammable and explosive substances such as paints and gas in the store.

Investigators have opened a criminal case into safety violations in connection with the fire and the TASS news agency said that the OBI store was “almost completely destroyed” but added that the fire had not spread to the rest of the shopping center.

OBI And IKEA Exit Russia

For its part, OBI confirmed its exit from Russia this spring over the invasion of Ukraine, while Russian media had reported at the time that OBI’s Russian and German managers were in a dispute over reopening stores.

OBI eventually offloaded all its Russian outlets – including 27 superstores – over the summer, with a 60% stake bought by Russian-born German-Israeli businessman Josef Liokumovich for just $10.

Mega Khmiki is owned by Ingka Centres, part of the Ingka Group that also owns Swedish furniture and homewares giant IKEA.

The latter decided to close its stores in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and the company subsequently began to wind down its business.

More recently Yandex Market, owned by Russian internet giant Yandex, agreed to buy up its remaining inventory, signing binding documents on November 16 to buy more than 20 million IKEA products left over from the final online sale this summer, it said, adding that it will start selling the items before the end of the year.

Yandex will sell the products in a section of its online marketplace dedicated to ‘IKEA goods’, which combines items from production sites in Russia which used to supply IKEA, shop inventory and IKEA goods brought from overseas.

The damaged center is one of 14 in Russia owned by Ingka Centres and had originally housed a number of major Western retail outlets, until many pulled out after February’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the incident and The All-Russia Insurance Association has estimated losses from the fire at up to $480 million.