Fire in center of Alma-Ata extinguished, driver of oil truck dead

A heavy fire which broke out in the centre of Alma-Ata after an road accident involving an oil truck has been extinguished, the press service of the Kazakh Ministry for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Thursday. No other casualties except the truck driver were known yet, it said. The fire was fully extinguished at 11.48 am local time, said spokesman for the Kazakh ministry Yerkebulan Alimkulov. Coroners have been investigating the causes of the accident, assessing the damages inflicted and specifying the territory affected by the fire, he said. A total of 80 firemen, as well as 16 units of fire-fighting equipment were involved in fire extinguishing, the spokesman said. The traffic accident, as a result of which the oil truck overturned and caught fire, caused a heavy fire in the centre of Alma-Ata. According to preliminary reports, the oil truck driver died; the fire destroyed around 20 apartments in a nearby multi-storied residential block and eight cars.