Marketplace Ozon, which, during a fire in August 2022 at a warehouse near Moscow…

The Ozon marketplace, which lost 11 billion rubles worth of goods and killed two people in a fire in August 2022 at a warehouse near Moscow, does not want to take responsibility for what happened. For two years now, Internet Solutions LLC (the Russian legal entity of Ozon) has been trying to shift all the blame to Orientir-Zapad LLC, from whom the electronic trading platform rented warehouse space in the city of Istra.

Three examinations ordered by the investigation concluded that the fire extinguishing system in the warehouse worked properly. But it couldn’t cope with the fire because Ozon built six-story racks in the warehouse, and the standard fire protection system, designed only for “floor” storage of property, simply did not have enough power.

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In turn, Ozon representatives ordered their expertise from the Academy of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. And its experts came to the conclusion that at the time of the fire the automatic fire extinguishing system was turned off due to repair work. At the same time, witnesses to the incident stated that the system was working and water was flowing regularly. And since the State Fire Service Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia is not included in the special list of state forensic organizations accredited for such examinations, the court excluded the presented document from the case.

Meanwhile, in order to relieve themselves of responsibility for the burned goods and injured people, Ozon lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of the mother of the deceased employee Dmitry Maslikhin against the warehouse owner demanding compensation for moral damages in the amount of 1 million rubles. Thus, the marketplace hoped to use the decision as recognition of Orientir-Zapad LLC as the culprit of the fire in further legal proceedings.

However, the court awarded to mother the victim received compensation for moral damage on the basis of Article 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (which the warehouse owner is ready to pay on his own), leaving the investigation with the opportunity to continue to understand the causes of the fire, which have not yet been finally established. The investigation into the criminal case continues.

A fire at the Ozon warehouse in Istra occurred on August 3, 2022. The fire was completely extinguished four days later. As a result of the tragedy, more than 10 people were injured. Two, including Dmitry Maslikhin, went missing. They were later declared dead.