The key facts

  • The Theater on the South-West caught fire in Moscow; the fire was assigned an elevated complexity rank, and people were evacuated.
  • According to the Telegram channel 112, the fire started in a utility room; the theater is located on the first floor of a residential building on Vernadsky Avenue.
  • In August, a fire at the Vyborg Palace of Culture in Saint Petersburg led to the rescheduling of several performances.

Fire at a theater and evacuation

The Theater on the South-West caught fire in Moscow; the fire was assigned an elevated complexity rank, Gazeta.Ru reports, citing the Telegram channel 112. According to the channel, the fire started in a utility room. The theater is located on the first floor of a residential building on Vernadsky Avenue, from which thick black smoke began billowing. People were evacuated from the building.

A similar incident in Saint Petersburg

Gazeta.Ru also recalls a similar incident in August, when the Vyborg Palace of Culture in Saint Petersburg caught fire — before a performance featuring Fyodor Dobronravov. While the fire spread across the roof, audience members with bouquets were arriving at the building, unaware of what had happened; Dobronravov himself was at a hotel at the time. Ultimately, the fire spread over 400 square meters.

Consequences for the audience

All tickets for the production 'You Are Somewhere Nearby' with Dobronravov had been sold. The following day, performances of 'The Too-Married Taxi Driver' with Denis Kosyakov and Sergey Efremov and 'The Landlady' with Gosha Kutsenko and Anna Ardova were scheduled; audiences had bought more than half the tickets for them. However, due to the fire, all performances were rescheduled. Earlier, as the outlet notes, people caught fire at a torch festival.

Why this matters

Fires in buildings where hundreds of spectators are present at the same time directly affect public safety: in the Saint Petersburg case, ticket holders for a sold-out performance approached the burning building without knowing about the fire. A practical consequence for audiences is the rescheduling of purchased performances, as already happened with three productions at the Vyborg Palace of Culture. The report does not mention any injuries or the final cause of the Moscow fire.