Eight firefighters died during a warehouse fire in Moscow Thursday evening, according to the Russian state news service.
They were killed trying to prevent an explosion of 30 cylinders of household gas stored in the warehouse, according to TASS, the news service.
Russia’s Investigation Committee has opened an inquiry into the fire and deaths.
“Aleksander Bastrykin (head of the committee) noted that the preliminary analysis of firefighters’ actions at the scene showed that they had prevented a huge disaster but lost their lives since the warehouse had cylinders containing flammable substances,” committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told TASS.
The firefighters’ bodies were discovered Friday morning after the fire was put out.
The 4,000-square-meter warehouse stored plastic goods. It took 300 firefighters 14 hours to extinguish the blaze. Early reports said the dead firefighters were on the roof when it collapsed.
Authorities told TASS that, “incautious handling of a radiator” is the likely cause of the fire.