Russian Cathedral Fire Prompts Inspections

Firefighters battling the blaze on August 25 (epa) August 28, 2006 -- The top federal fire official in St. Petersburg says all city buildings under restoration must have fire inspections.
Maksim Biryukov, the head of the city's fire inspection division of the Emergency Situations Ministry, says the inspections will begin in early September once a list is compiled of the city's most vulnerable structures.

Biryukov's comments come after a fire on August 25 at St. Petersburg's 19th-century Trinity Cathedral destroyed the building's main cupola, which was constructed of wood and was under wooden scaffolding at the time of the fire. A smaller cupola was also damaged.

Emergency workers and clerics managed to save all of the cathedral's valuable icons and religious articles.

A criminal case has been opened into the cause of the fire.

(Interfax, themoscowtimes.com)