Fire at noted huge Brutalist block in Moscow leaves 2 dead

MOSCOW — Two people died in a fire at one of the Russian capital's most notable buildings, a gargantuan Brutalist apartment block that viewers have likened to a toppled skyscraper, emergency officials said Thursday.

The nighttime fire broke out in the so-called Dom Korabl (Ship Building), a hive of about 1,000 apartments that rises 14 stories in the south-central part of Moscow. Emergency officials said a preliminary investigation indicated it was caused by electrical problems in one of the units.

The building forms a high gray wall stretching along a main street for 400 meters (1,300 feet), about the same length as the largest container ships and equivalent to the Empire State Building lying on its side.

It was constructed by the Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine Building, which also built nuclear power plants and developed nuclear warheads, completed in 1986 after 14 years of work.