Russian Cathedral Trinity In Flames

Mosnews: Russia Launches Probe Into Trinity Cathedral Blaze in St. Petersburg


Speaking at a news briefing on Saturday Vera Dementieva, head of the committee for protection of historic monuments, said that the head of the construction firm contracted to carry out restoration works at the cathedral, had suffered a heart attack after the fire broke out, the Gazeta. Ru news website reports..

Firefighters battled to save the other three domes as emergency workers and church employees removed icons and other religious articles from the Russian Orthodox cathedral. A helicopter brought in to fight the blaze was dumping water on the historic structure.

After the main dome collapsed, flames leaped up from the rim where it had stood. Before the fire, the domes towered from a solid base marked by classical columns. The cathedral was built in 1835 and is considered an architectural monument. State-run Rossiya television said the main dome was the second-largest wooden cupola in Europe, and Channel One said that writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky was married there. It was used as a storehouse during the Soviet era and was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990.

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