A massive fire tore through the Pravoberezhnny Market in St Petersburg’s Nevsky district on Wednesday evening, killing one person and injuring two others. The blaze began around 5:00 PM inside the two-storey building at 16 Ulitsa Dybenko and spread quickly due to high-load materials stored for the Christmas season. Firefighters evacuated about 100 people as flames shot through the roof of the historic Soviet-era structure.
Emergency teams deployed additional units as the fire intensified. Crews used specialised equipment and a mobile chemical laboratory to control the situation. By 7:22 PM, responders contained the blaze, although efforts to fully extinguish it continued into the night.
Local authorities have launched an investigation into the cause. They are examining whether any safety lapses accelerated the fire’s spread through the 1,500-square-metre section of the market.
The Pravoberezhnny Market, originally known as the Nevsky Collective Farm Market, was built between 1979 and 1983. The structure gained cultural recognition after appearing in the 1989 Soviet film Interdevochka. Officials have inspected the market several times in recent years due to concerns about fire safety compliance.
