St. Petersburg apartment fire caused by makeshift stove
A fire broke out in the ventilation shaft of a residential building in the Petrogradsky district of St. Petersburg on January 29. Residents suggested that the cause might have been someone lighting a fire in the attic due to heating problems.
Mar 1, 2026 0
The building manager describes the heating system failures that led residents to seek alternative warmth.
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On the afternoon of January 29, a fire broke out in the ventilation shaft of a residential building on Bolshaya Zelenina Street in the Petrogradsky district of St. Petersburg. Emergency services quickly arrived at the scene.
Improvised heating methods were shared among residents during the prolonged absence of central heating.
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The fire was reported around 4:30 PM at house number 13. According to building manager Sergei Yelgazin, flames were shooting out of the shaft on the roof. Firefighters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) and ambulance crews were dispatched.
Emergency services respond to a fire in the ventilation shaft of a historic St. Petersburg building.
Residents believe the incident may have been caused by someone lighting a fire in the attic. One of them said: «When we saw flames coming from the ventilation shaft, we immediately suspected with sadness that perhaps someone had made a stove for themselves. When the MChS and management company employees were leaving, they talked about how it indeed seemed like someone on the fifth floor was burning a fireplace.»
Yelgazin explained that before the fire, the building had been without heating for a long time. This was due to repairs to internal pipes and the district heating main, which led to temperature fluctuations and damage to the risers. «The risers freeze and burst. Today, the situation seems to be normalizing, heat is being supplied to the building, and the management company is fixing the malfunctions in individual risers,» he noted.
Residents were forced to find ways to heat their homes on their own. «We warmed ourselves as best we could, even wrote instructions in the building»s chat on how to make improvised radiators from pots of hot water, to heat only one room with a heater...«, added the building manager.
The fire occurred on Thursday, January 29.
The building at Bolshaya Zelenina, 13 has historical value. «The House of Cheap Apartments of the Imperial Philanthropic Society», built in 1899–1900, was included in the unified state register as an object of cultural heritage of regional significance a week earlier.
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