Man Blames Balcony BBQ for Korolyov Fire, Refuses Compensation

Residents of a building in Korolyov that caught fire in June have decided to sue the owner of the apartment where the blaze broke out. They claim that he, while drunk, was grilling shashlik on his balcony and then refused to compensate them for the damage. The man himself was detained by the National Guard that night. At first he asked them to put themselves in his shoes, but then he began boasting about his influential relatives.

What happened

On the evening of 13 June, an apartment on the second-to-last floor of a high-rise on Michurin Street caught fire. Its owner, Dmitry, according to witnesses, ran outside drunk with a bottle of wine and explained that he had been grilling shashlik.

“He was in a state of complete intoxication, he was rowdy, shouting, the National Guard took him away. There are about fifty witnesses. When he was asked what happened, he said: ‘I was grilling shashlik on the balcony.’ Whether it flared up from lighter fluid or something else is unclear,” resident Dana told MSK1.RU.

Dmitry’s upstairs neighbor Natalia said her apartment suffered the most. She was not at home during the fire, but her 17-year-old son called her: he heard a crash and saw smoke.

“He went out to the balcony to see what happened, and the window was already on fire. I asked him to close the windows, grab the animals if possible, and get outside. He grabbed the cat, but the dog was so scared it hid in the toilet, and the Emergencies Ministry workers had to rescue it. We are still scared — both the animals and us,” Natalia said.

Natalia had an expert assessment done — repairing the apartment now costs more than 700,000 rubles ($8,800).

Refused to take responsibility

Dmitry initially promised to compensate for the damage, but then changed his mind. In the building chat, he first wrote: “I’ll compensate everyone for everything,” and then: “Get off my back.” He also added other colorful statements:

“They’ve already made a decision, what more do you want”;

“You bastards, don’t you dare mess with me, or I’ll bring in all my lawyers”;

“Are you out of your minds, I have so many connections”;

“At 25 I have a BMW worth 10 million, I could buy this whole building myself”;

“Know that I’m [in the] SMO, that’s the most important thing”;

“My father runs all the factories in Korolyov, he’s a director, and you think anything will happen to me.”

Residents of the building believe Dmitry is not talking about his father but about his stepfather — Vadim Salimov. An MSK1.RU journalist reached him by phone, but he did not listen to the questions to the end and did not confirm that he is indeed the man’s stepfather. He is aware of the fire, however.

“That’s their [the neighbors’] problem, let them go to court. I apologize, it’s awkward to say more,” Vadim Salimov cut in.

He is the general director of AO SKB “ATIK” — a company registered in Moscow that conducts research in the natural and technical sciences. Salimov previously headed the research and production firm “VALS” (which manufactured parts for aircraft and spacecraft in the Moscow region) and was a founder of OOO “ADVANTEK-sistemy svyazi” and OOO “Kompozit — Avia.”

What happens next

Now the owners of the damaged apartments are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit. They consider Dmitry to be the culprit and disagree with the expert assessment. As Natalia said, she drew the firefighters’ attention to the gas cylinders and the mangal (grill) that burned on the balcony.

“I was told at the fire department that residents can store anything they want on their balconies. I said: ‘Do you understand that there are witnesses that he said he was grilling shashlik, and then we see a mangal there?’ And they said: ‘So what?’” she recalled.

“He said he had put out a cigarette butt poorly. But a neighbor who helped put out the fire later said he saw a can of lighter fluid on the balcony,” another resident, Nadezhda, shared.

MSK1.RU has a copy of the decision refusing to open a criminal case. It follows that the most likely cause of the fire is “ignition of combustible materials of objects in the surroundings from an open flame source or a smoldering tobacco product.”

MSK1.RU was unable to speak with Dmitry. He did not answer calls or messages from the editorial team.

Earlier we reported on a fire in the “Evropeysky” shopping and entertainment center, where a man set clothes on fire in a fitting room.