Apartment fire in central Russia kills five

Five people were killed and two others injured Saturday in a fire apparently started by a household gas explosion in central Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, news agencies reported.
   The blaze broke out on the top floor of a five-story building in Dzerzhinsk, Interfax quoted Svetlana Petrova, spokeswoman for the regional branch of the emergencies ministry, as saying.
   "Five people, including a girl aged about 10, have been found dead at the scene. Their identities have yet to be determined," Petrova said, Xinhua reported.
   The two injured people were taken a local hospital, she said.
   Russia has an appalling fire safety record, with 15,165 people killed in blazes across the country in 2008, according to the federal emergency services. The death rate is several times higher than that in the West.
   Last Saturday, flames sparked by an indoor fireworks display swept through a nightclub in the Ural city of Perm, killing at least 144 people and hospitalizing dozens more.