Editor’s note: On March 25, a fire broke out in a shopping mall in the city of Kemerovo in Russia. Fire exits were blocked and the fire alarm system was turned off. Sixty-four people died in the fire, most of them children.
Iryna Nikitenko
head of the customer service
“Just the idea that something similar may happen in Lavina Mall scares me because that building is very huge and I cannot image escaping a fire in such an immense territory.
What happened is awful, but good that some security check-ups are taking place after that. For instance, Garik Korogodskiy, the owner of the Dream Town shopping center, reacted rather quickly and a security check-up was already held there.
However, the risk remains. Many emergency exits are hardly seen and hardly can be used as there are shops on its places. Because of that I would not visit Magellan shopping center.”
Serhiy Nosov
chief engineer
“The reason for what happened in Kemerovo may be the irresponsibility of people, the human factor. That’s why the fire alarm has to be checked every week.
I once met a representative of the American Coast Guard. He would check all the fireplugs. I asked why he checked each one. If everything is fine with five horns, the sixth one shall be also in good condition, I thought. And the man explained that he had once a situation where the fireplug that the fire had to be extinguished with contained petrol. Two years after that talk I had the same experience.
The human factor remains. We often say ‘We have what we have,’ meaning we don’t change anything.”
Anna Cherniavko
cultural studies student
“For me, the main reason for that fire is indifference of the people in charge of security. Of course, nobody is safe from getting into such a terrible situation. The same may happen in one of our shopping malls: The emergency exits may also be closed. That’s a big tragedy and one more tragedy is that the authorities (in Russia) don’t want to talk about it. People cooperate on their own, reveal what happened on their Instagram accounts and fight on their own.”
Serhiy Boyko
unemployed
“In the sense of security, our country is the same. It may also happen somewhere in Ukraine.
The flawed system has to be changed because the same people with the same way of thinking remain in the same jobs. If someone appointed by the existing authorities will control or initiate any security check-ups, I doubt it would help. I would not trust it. They would say everything is fine.
I don’t even consider the negligence to be the main reason for the fire in Kemerovo. For me, the reason is the authorities’ indifferent attitude to everything, especially to people. It seems to be a Soviet tendency that still exists both in Russia and Ukraine.”
Yuriy Lysenko
IT specialist
“The main reason for me is negligence. Such tragedies happen often, I believe. But they are not always covered a lot.
I do not trust security check-ups because everything is based on corruption. If the result of such a check-up cannot be bought in a country, only then one can trust it. In our country, a lot can be bought.”
