A huge Wildberries warehouse is on fire in Russia (5 photos + 7 videos)

Category: Fires and Catastrophes, PEGI 0+

16 January 2024

In the Pushkinsky district near St. Petersburg, Wildberries warehouses are now burning; the fire area already exceeds 70 thousand square meters.

More than $34 million was spent on the construction of the Wildberries distribution center in Shushary near St. Petersburg, not including equipment costs. And all this was destroyed by fire; the fire has been raging in the area for more than 2 hours.

The fire in the warehouse has already spread to half of the gigantic premises of 100 thousand square meters.

The fire started around 7 am. This footage shows around 7:30 am.

In a crowd of people trying to get out into the street, there are shouts and bustle everywhere. At least 1,000 people were in the warehouse when the fire started. The incident occurred during a shift between night and day employees.

There was a stampede when trying to get through the narrow doors during the fire at the marketplace warehouse. According to employees, at the time of the fire they were confused and did not know where to run, which caused panic. People continued to descend from the third floor, even when the fire was already approaching the first floor.

According to Wildberries employees, the fire extinguishing system did not work when the fire began to spread on racks with household chemicals. As the fire engulfed most of the premises, fireworks stored in the warehouse began to explode inside the building. There is no information about casualties at this time. All employees were evacuated.

The fire has been assigned the maximum level of complexity - No. 5. 250 rescuers and 57 pieces of equipment are working to extinguish it.

According to preliminary information, arson is considered to be the main cause of the fire at the warehouse. Final conclusions will be made after extinguishing the fire and conducting an examination.

On the eve of the fire, massive security checks took place at the warehouse. They were caused by a stabbing near the warehouse.

On the Moskovskoye Highway in St. Petersburg on the night of January 10-11, a mass brawl occurred. A citizen of Tajikistan tried to stand near the Wildberry warehouse, but he was refused - several Azerbaijani citizens pointed out to him that this was “their” place, and they would not allow him to stand there.

The verbal confrontation escalated into a brawl, and then into a knife fight. The Tajikistani stabbed the Azerbaijani several times (the victim was taken to the hospital, the attacker also sought medical help). The police opened a criminal case under the article of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, but in addition to those injured during the brawl, employees of the marketplace warehouse were also injured - after the fight, a police van arrived at the warehouse on Moskovskoe Highway. All marketplace employees were subject to background checks.

The distribution center was said to primarily contain clothing. A week before the fire, the fire alarm in blocks 1 and 2 of the warehouse went off several times, but each time it turned out to be false. So when the alarm went off today, the staff initially thought it was a false alarm again.

Currently, the situation at the Wildberries warehouse is critical. The flames literally consume the building. Presumably, the fire could have started in one of the rooms where refrigeration equipment was installed. According to witnesses, the fire quickly spread.

“Black Sky” reached the St. Petersburg districts of Kupchino and Dybenko

The company itself said that sellers will receive compensation for goods damaged in the fire, and customers will be refunded for lost orders.

This is what a burning Wildberries warehouse looks like from an airplane window.

The fire approached the truck stop located next to the Wildberries warehouse in Shushary near St. Petersburg. About 12 trucks were at risk. A search is currently underway for their owners or drivers to remove the cars to a safe distance, but so far no one has been found.

One of the employees who was on shift reported that the shelves with household chemicals located on the 6th level of the Shushara warehouse were the first to catch fire.and WB, almost under the ceiling. The fire occurred in the first block of the distribution center.

According to some employees, they were detained before leaving due to security checks to prevent the theft of goods. They claim that despite the panic, the alarm and the large crowd at the exit, the security guard continued to search the employees. As the situation worsened and the fire spread to other floors, the guards were simply ignored.

Throughout the fire area, roofs and walls collapsed, and witnesses reported a constant roar. Employees of Rospotrebnadzor arrived in Shushary to take air samples.

The sky over the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg is completely covered with thick smoke, and ash is flying into the windows of residents of houses in the area.

On the eve of the fire, a pipe burst in the warehouse. While the police and the National Guard were raiding the distribution center, the goods receiving area was flooded with water, which did nothing to stop today’s fire.

Damage from the fire could reach $125 million.

The fire in the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg was localized to an area of 70 thousand square meters, there were no casualties, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports.

A fire at a warehouse in Shushary set a new record for the largest scale in the history of Russian retail. The roof collapse has already occurred over an area of 40 thousand meters. This exceeds the size of the fire that occurred in August 2022 at the Ozon warehouse in the Istra district of the Moscow region, where the fire engulfed an area of 50 thousand square meters, and aviation was used to extinguish the fire.