A huge fire broke out in the historic Miller's mansion on St. Isaac's Square in St. Petersburg last night. The fire was localized at 00:40 on October 2, and at 01:45 it was announced that the open flames had been extinguished. After that, firefighters continued to shed the structures and dismantle the building.
The fire has spread to about 2,000 square meters in the unused building on St. Isaac's Square No. 3. The flames also spread to the roof of a neighboring building, where the wooden roof structure was burning over an area of about 250 square meters. The roof structure partially collapsed during the fire.
165 firefighters and 37 specialized vehicles participated in the extinguishing. No information was received on casualties. “Rank No. 3 means not only extinguishing, but also protecting nearby buildings“, said Andrei Litovka, head of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in St. Petersburg.
The Investigative Committee of St. Petersburg has begun an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire. The cause of its occurrence has not yet been established.
Who is Miller
The building is known as the mansion and income house of Karl Loginovich Miller. The first stone building on the site was erected in the second half of the 18th century. In 1879, the property was acquired by Karl Miller, an engineer-lieutenant colonel and former military engineer.
Miller entrusted the reconstruction to his brother Franz-Ferdinand Loginovich Miller. The architect, an academician of architecture, modified the complex in 1879-1880. Then the house received a third floor, and a new front building was built on the side of today's Yakubovicha Street. It is this appearance that has largely been preserved to this day.
Franz-Ferdinand Miller designed more than 20 buildings in St. Petersburg, participated in the construction of the Peterhof Railway and is the author of the railway station in Oranienbaum. Among his works are warehouses of the trading house “Eliseev Brothers“.
The complex remained the property of the Miller family until nationalization in 1917. Today the estate has the status of a cultural heritage site of regional significance.
Sources: Interfax, Fontanka, Saint Petersburg TV Channel