MOSCOW, November 18 (RAPSI) – A court in the Khabarovsk Krai has scheduled a criminal case over the 2019 deadly fire in the children camp Holdomi for December 3, RAPSI has learnt in the press service of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.

According to investigators, the camp director Maxim Kuznetsov, the director of Extreme Service, the company owning the camp, Vitaly Burlakov and an officer of the regional directorate of the Ministry for Emergency Situations Eduard Novgorodtsev are charged with providing services not equal to the safety requirements and negligence. 

The fire occurred in the camp in the night of July 23, 2019. Four children died. In total, 189 minors aged from 7 to 15 years were in the camp, the press service of the children’s rights commissioner Anna Kuznetsova reported earlier.

In July 2019, a scheduled exercise was conducted in the camp. In the course of the exercise, Novgorodtsev revealed that the accommodation of children in a tent camp was organized in breach of fire-hazard regulations; however, he failed to take steps to oblige the Holdomi administration to correct the violations. Burlakov and Kuznetsov in turn failed to provide the services in a proper manner, investigators claim.