Published on November 1, 2019.

Lame Horse

10 years ago, 156 people died in a catastrophic Russian nightclub blaze


Early on the morning of December 5, 2009, partygoers packed the Lame Horse, a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, to celebrate the club’s eighth anniversary. Then, in an instant, fire broke out and chaos ensued.

Details were captured in a video shot by a patron. A dance performance was accompanied by fireworks that ignited the ceiling, which was covered with a highly combustible combination of plastic and twigs. The plastic was expanded polystyrene, which produces toxic smoke containing high levels of carbon monoxide. As occupants made their way to the exit, many were unaware that the black smoke filling the building was more life-threatening than the flames. “When I turned back, I saw drops falling off the ceiling and then there was a lot of smoke,” a survivor told the BBC.

People were funneled through a single exit, trapping many. Smoke overcame patrons who were not
among the first to evacuate. “People just broke down the doors because panic began. Everything was filled with smoke,” a witness told the New York Times.

Occupants who escaped observed another horrific scene: bodies were piled in the street as people frantically searched for missing friends. Hundreds needed medical attention, but responders were unable to transport all of the casualties to the hospital. The fire resulted in 156 fatalities, making it the deadliest fire in post-Soviet Russia and the ninth-deadliest international nightclub fire on record.

The poor enforcement of building codes was immediately cited as a primary cause of the fire. Accusations began to surface that inspections in Russia were sometimes used as an opportunity for officials to demand bribes, rather than enforce an acceptable level of fire safety. Although the Lame Horse had been previously cited for unsafe conditions, the deficiencies were never rectified. “The authorities are directly to blame, along with the corruption and the criminality of firemen,” one resident told the BBC. Four people, including the club’s co-owner, were taken into police custody and charged with manslaughter.

In the year prior to the Lame Horse fire, Russia had roughly 18,000 fire deaths, five times more than US totals during the same period.

In addition to underscoring the Russian fire problem, the Lame Horse fire also highlighted the issue of inadequate nightclub safety and regulation worldwide, including in the US. The fire drew immediate and accurate comparisons to the 2003 Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, where 100 people were killed in an overcrowded club destroyed by a fire that began with the use of pyrotechnics. Around the world, people are still at risk in these occupancies that share key characteristics, including overcrowding, highly combustible interior finishes, insufficient exits, and an absence of automatic sprinklers.

MATTHEW FOLEY is junior applied researcher at NFPA. Top photograph: Newscom