Eight Russian firefighters were killed as they battled a blaze at a warehouse in eastern Moscow, authorities said Friday, in the latest deadly fire to hit the capital. Their bodies were discovered after contact was lost as they fought to extinguish a huge blaze that started Thursday evening at a plastics depot, the emergency services ministry said in a statement.
"The corpses of eight colleagues have been found in the main area where the search was located," the statement said. "Until the end there was hope that they would be alive. But due to the intense fire, the high temperatures and the thick smoke the firefighters were unable to get out." The emergency workers were among the first to arrive on the scene and helped evacuate 100 workers from the warehouse located towards the eastern edge of the Russian capital, officials said.