MOSCOW (AP) -- The lack of an alarm system and other basic safety precautions contributed to the high death toll in a dormitory fire that killed 36 foreign students and injured nearly 200, officials said Tuesday.
The students from Asia, Africa and Latin America, who were trapped by a fire that engulfed the dormitory of the People's Friendship University before dawn Monday, screamed for help and leaped from the top floors of the five-story building when they found some exits locked, survivors said.
The dorm lacked an alarm system and there was no evacuation plan for its residents, many of whom didn't speak Russian, said Vladimir Rodin, a deputy chief of Russia's fire service, speaking on Channel One television.
``The tragedy occurred because of bad organization and poor technical equipment,'' Yuri Vorobyov, a deputy minister of emergency situations, said in a televised statement.
He said that the university's ``administration should have thought in advance about emergency evacuation in case of fire, but, regrettably, that hasn't been done.'' Vorobyov said that the ministry would urge the Cabinet to introduce stricter fire safety rules at schools and universities.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov offered condolences Tuesday to the victims' families and pledged the government would take ``additional steps'' to ensure student safety. The government has repeatedly promised to improve fire safety in schools after a series of deadly blazes that killed scores of children.
A preliminary investigation pointed to an electrical problem as the cause of the fire, Deputy Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told President Vladimir Putin on Monday. In an apparent attempt to head off criticism, Russia's education minister raised the possibility of arson, but other officials said it was highly unlikely, pointing at electric heaters or other appliances as the most likely cause.
The lack of an alarm system meant that many students became aware of the fire only when it was already too late to use a single stairway, which quickly filled with smoke. Many suffocated in their rooms, and others were trapped in the second stairway, in front of a metal exit door that was permanently locked.
Some survivors were in grave condition with spinal injuries. Others broke bones or suffered from smoke inhalation. Many were frostbitten after fleeing half-naked into the bitter cold and lying in the snow waiting for ambulances.
Most victims had just arrived and were being held in the dorm awaiting medical checks before starting classes.
Once a showpiece of Soviet patronage of the Third World, receiving generous state subsidies, the university fell into disrepair with the 1991 fall of communism. Still, it continued to draw students from impoverished nations with its low tuition, such as medical school costs of $1,200 a year.
Students said the dead and injured were from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru and Malaysia. The Chinese government said Tuesday that the fire had killed at least five Chinese students and injured 34 others.
The university was founded in 1960 and named Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University in honor of the postcolonial Congo's first prime minister; its name was changed in 1992. Its aim was to offer a strict Marxist curriculum to students from developing nations.
With stipends shrinking to almost nothing, many of its students trade goods to make money, and already cramped dormitories are often packed with bags and bundles, making them a fire hazard.
Russia has a high rate of fire deaths, 18,000 a year - nearly five times the number of fire deaths in the United States, which has twice the population. Experts say fatalities have skyrocketed since the end of the Soviet Union, in part because of lower public vigilance and a disregard for safety standards.
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